Sitting cancelled with Eva still on leave

The Parliamentary sitting that was scheduled for today has been cancelled again due to Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Eva Abdulla still being ill.

The motion of no confidence against the Speaker of Parliament, Mohamed Nasheed, was on the agenda this morning at the request of the MDP Parliamentary Group.

However, Parliament Communications Director Hassan Ziyau told Sun today that today's session has now been cancelled.

The no-confidence motion was first presented to Parliament by MDP, which has 56 members in Parliament, and was on the agenda for last Sunday. However, no sitting has been held since that day till now. Eva has been on leave since Sunday due to illness.

According to the rules of the People's Majlis, the Deputy Speaker shall preside over the no-confidence motion against the Speaker. Therefore, the no-confidence motion against Nasheed cannot be conducted until Eva is present.

However, MDP said that according to the rules of the Parliament, another person can preside over the session in Eva's absence.

The rules of the Parliament goes on to state that once a no-confidence motion has been moved against the Speaker, the Parliament cannot proceed with any other issues until a decision is reached regarding the no-confidence motion. Therefore, MDP has decided not to cooperate with any work done by the Parliament until a decision is taken on Nasheed's case.

MDP has also filed a petition in the Supreme Court as the no-confidence motion against Nasheed has not progressed. The court accepted the case and scheduled a hearing for Monday morning.