AG: Cannot proceed with any other work without concluding Nasheed’s motion

Attorney General Ibrahim Riffath states he does not believe any other work of the parliament can be tabled for sitting, and proceeded, while the no-confidence motion against Speaker Mohamed Nasheed is pending.

Riffath’s legal advice on the contentious matter read that the parliament’s regulation stipulated the parliament’s secretary general must give notice of a no-confidence motion submitted against the speaker to the speaker and the members within three working days from the date of the submission of the motion.

The motion must be presented within the first working day after the expiration of the 14-day notice period, he added.

Riffath stressed that any other parliamentary works can be carried out after concluding the no-confidence motion.

He detailed that the sitting on the no-confidence motion must be presided over by the deputy speaker, as per the regulation, while the regulation stipulates the way forward if the deputy speaker is indisposed.

In light of this, Riffath said tabling the no-confidence motion on the agenda was mandatory. He expressed that he does not believe the parliament’s regulation permits any other parliamentary work to proceed while the no-confidence motion is ongoing.

MDP, which submitted the no-confidence motion, has decided against cooperating with any parliamentary work for as long as no progress has been made on the motion.

The Parliament had been scheduled to hear the no-confidence motion submitted by the MDP against their former leader on Sunday, and again, on Monday. However, Deputy Speaker Eva Abdulla, Nasheed’s cousin and fellow Democrats member, called in sick. She informed the Parliament that she was recovering from dengue, which she was diagnosed with last week.

Parliament’s Secretary General Fathimath Niusha decided the sitting could not be held without Eva there to chair it. The motion was postponed to Wednesday.

The decision drew protest from MDP lawmakers, who have filed a constitutional case with the Supreme Court, seeking to suspend further sittings until work on the motion is done, first.

Tuesday’s sitting, during which the Parliament was scheduled to work on the MVR 6.5 billion supplementary budget, couldn’t be held after MDP lawmakers showed up with horns and disrupted the sitting.