Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP)'s proposed amendment to parliament regulation aims to ensure uninterrupted proceedings of the legislative body, said Ihavandhoo MP Mohamed Shifaau.
According to the MP, the decision was not motivated by the party's attempts to impeach the President or the Vice President.
Shifau's amendment on the regulation states that the total count of the parliament for the current session should be held at 80, after excluding the MPs who resigned owing to their appointment to government roles.
Amendments proposed by MP Shifau include;
- Should any MP resign or be dismissed from his seat before the parliament's session ends, the members' count should be made after excluding such a member
- Any changes to the members' count of the parliament should be formally announced in the next official sitting
The amendments would change the capacity required for the parliament's quorum and and the number of members required for bills that demand a specific number of votes according to the Constitution.
According to the Constitution, either the president or the vice president can be impeached with the approval of one-third of the parliament members' votes for the resolution seeking their impeachment. Should the MP's amendment becomes approved, the current majority of MDP would be able to impeach them without the involvement of any other parties in the parliament.
The resolution seeking impeachment of the president or the vice president require 54 votes while the parliament currently consists of 56 MDP members.
Meanwhile, several of the state officials view this as an attempt by MDP to overthrow President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu's administration.
However, according to MP Shifau, MDP has not held any discussions for the impeachment of the President or the Vice President.
The MP further said that should the party willed, it could seek impeachment of the president without any amendments to the parliament regulation, which Shifau said he was confident of achieving through allies.
He further said that the current administration was not functioning within the law.
According to the MP, parliament regulation has gone through significant revisions since the dismissal of former Speaker Nasheed, which Shifau added could not proceed forward earlier.
He noted discovering discrepancies in the regulation during Nasheed's no-confidence motion, which are currently addressed and amid rectification.
"With the change to the parliament's chair, we have made reforms to the regulation. We believe these two revisions have gained traction because it has irked the people currently involved in running the government," MP Shifau said.
The MP further argued that factoring in non-existent members to the parliament's count was against the spirit of the Maldives Constitution. He also highlighted that the recent Supreme Court verdict on former Speaker Mohamed Nasheed's dismissal case held no arrangements should be made to impede the proceedings of the legislative.
"Even when we consider that, interpreting the parliament's regulation to count 87 members as the total capacity is not right. In truth, neither the regulation nor the Constitution provides an exact number of the MPs for the parliament, which is why this is the first-ever bill to give an exact count of MPs," he said.
"I believe counting the number of the seats in the chamber as the number MPs is against the spirit of the Constitution. The number of MPs inside the parliament should be taken as what it is, for instance if a member resigns, then they are no longer identified as an MP, and there is no way their seat can be counted in as an existent member."
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