Attorney General Ibrahim Riffath will be representing the parliament in the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP)-filed constitutional lawsuit seeking legal interpretation regarding the no-confidence motion against Parliament Speaker Mohamed Nasheed.
The Attorney General has confirmed this to Mihaaru News on Sunday, November 5.
Riffath previously extended legal advice against parliament secretariat's decision to put the budget bills on agenda after 'parking' Nasheed's no-confidence motion. Based on his advice, Minister of Finance Ibrahim Ameer did not attend the respective parliament sitting as well.
The Attorney General has represented the Parliament even previously in similar cases filed at Maldivian courts against the legislative body.
MDP, which is the complainant of the case at Supreme Court believes no other matters can proceed in the parliament without first addressing the no-confidence motion. The party is also seeking Supreme Court's remedy to facilitate longest-serving MPs to preside as the chair of parliament sittings when the Deputy Speaker recuses from the obligation for the no-confidence sitting.
Despite the notice period for the no-confidence motion signed by 49 MDP parliamentary members having expired, attempts to table the motion on the agenda since last Sunday have failed due to Deputy Speaker Eva Abdulla's leave of absence caused by contracting dengue fever.
While Nasheed's no-confidence motion has been put on the agenda for the fifth time, the most recent being Sunday, November 5, it was cancelled since Eva recused herself from presiding as the chair of the matter over her health concerns, and citing MDP's submission of the constitutional lawsuit at the Supreme Court.
Though MDP is seeking remedy to have the deputy speaker replaced with one out of the five longest-serving MPs to preside as chair of the no-confidence sitting, parliament secretariat believes the motion can proceed only in the presence of the deputy speaker in accordance to Article 205 of the parliament regulation.
MDP's legal team however, believes that the parliament Secretary General's decision was in violation of Article 82 of the Maldives Constitution and Article 44 of the parliament regulation. The team argues that Article 44 of the regulation stipulates eligible parliament MPs can preside as chair in the case both the speaker or the deputy speaker cannot preside.
MDP further referred to Article 205(d) of the parliament regulation in its argument that no other issue will proceed in the legislature without first addressing the no-confidence motion.
Meanwhile, both The Democrats, to which Nasheed and Eva belong to, and the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) and People's National Congress (PNC) coalition, which will come to power on November 17, decided to intervene into the case.
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