The General Purpose Committee of the Parliament has decided to change the regulations to allow petitions to be submitted repeatedly regarding a single matter or issue to the Parliament.

Under Article 257-1 (g) of the Parliamentary Standing Orders, it is mandated that a petition submitted to the Parliament must not include measures to re-execute an action that was previously proposed in a petition already submitted and undergoing process in the Parliament.

Funadhoo Constituency MP Mohamed Mamdhooh submitted a proposal to today's parliamentary sitting to omit Clause (g) of that article.

During the General Purpose Committee meeting held this afternoon to review the issue, the omission of Clause (g) and the reordering of the letters of that article were passed by the majority of seven members who participated in the committee meeting. One member voted against this amendment.

When this change was proposed, a petition calling for the withdrawal of the amendment proposed to the Decentralization Act, which allows lands within the jurisdiction of councils to be taken by the state, reached 2,100 signatures and attained the status of a special petition. Reaching this number of signatures makes it mandatory to debate the matter on the floor of the Parliament.

Furthermore, bringing it to the government's attention requires the issue of this petition to be placed on the agenda and debated in one of the upcoming three sittings.

While this petition was submitted, signing commenced yesterday on a counter-petition opposed to it.

However, under the current regulations, there is no opportunity to submit petitions repeatedly on the same matter in this manner.

It is learned that MP Mamdooh proposed this change to create room for submitting an additional petition on the matter, after S. Meedhoo Council President Ahmed Shathir mistakenly sent the petition he spearheaded, calling to proceed with the proposed amendment to the Decentralization Act as it currently stands, to the parliamentary committee before obtaining enough signatures to make debate on the floor of the Parliament mandatory.