The Democrats have become the minority party in parliament since all the Members of Parliament (MPs) who signed up with the party have been officially listed in the parliament registry.
Parliament Speaker and former President Mohamed Nasheed, who presided over the parliament sitting held yesterday, announced that 13 MPs had formally notified the parliament that they have signed with The Democrats. Therefore, these members have been registered in the parliamentary registry as representatives of The Democrats.
With this inclusion, The Democrats became the second largest party represented at the parliament. The Parliamentary Group of the party has been formed and Central Henveiru MP Ali Azim was elected as their Parliamentary Group leader.
The Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) was the former minority party, and their Parliamentary Group leader was Eydhafushi MP Ahmed Saleem.
Following the addition of The Democrats to the parliament registry, the composition of the parliament is as follows.
- 56 members representing the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP)
- 13 members representing The Democrats
- 3 members representing the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM)
- 3 members representing the People's National Congress (PNC)
- 3 members representing the Maldives National Party (MNP)
- 2 members representing the Maldives Development Alliance (MDA)
- 2 members representing the Jumhooree Party (JP)
- 3 independent members with no political party affiliation.
Speaker Nasheed said that the changes in duration given for debate and changes in committee composition will be submitted to a sitting of the parliament for endorsement.
Since many members who joined The Democrats did not formally notify the parliament of their affiliation earlier, the formation of standing committees had remained undecided for an extended period. As a result, the parliament's work had been stalled for several months pending a decision regarding the committees.
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