Fayyaz: Not letting the vote proceed was a low act by Afeef

MDP’s Chairperson Fayyaz Ismail has said that Vilufushi MP, Hassan Afeef, who presided over the Parliament sitting today, did a very low act to stop the no-confidence vote against the Speaker of Parliament, Mohamed Nasheed.

Fayyaz said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the current Parliament is more shameful than when former Speaker Abdulla Maseeh Mohamed presided over the Parliament. He said that it’s a dark and shameful day for democracy. Fayyaz also called on Nasheed to face the vote of no-confidence.

The atrocities of former speaker of Parliament Hon. Maseeh has paled into insignificance with todays shameful, cowardly act by Hon. Hassan Afeef to avoid the no confidence motion. A dark and shameful day for parliamentary democracy in Maldives. Face the vote @MohamedNasheed

— Fayyaz Ismail (@faya_i) November 12, 2023

The Democrats, the minority party in Parliament, filed a systemic motion saying the impeachment motion against Nasheed was not a resolution.

As the sitting began, Democrats' Minority Leader and Central Henveiru MP Ali Azim said the resolution presented to Parliament was illegal. Therefore, Azim repeatedly said that he would not allow the no-confidence motion to proceed.

Afeef accepted the point and adjourned the session after asking the resolution to be resubmitted.

However, the Parliament Office rescheduled the resolution for 11:30 a.m. today.