Shifaau: The main priority should be impeaching the president

Ihavandhoo MP Mohamed Shifaau, on Monday, has cited the work which the parliament must undertake with the highest priority at the moment as the impeachment of President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu.

He made the remark while debating on the report by General Purpose Committee greenlighting an amendment that will ease the process of impeaching the president and the vice president.

During the debate, Shifaau also announced he will be submitting the issue of impeachment to his party, main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP)’s parliamentary group.

Shifaau accused the incumbent administration of ruling without any legal boundaries, adding they have not adhered to any legislature passed by the parliament and enacted by the president.

“We are seeing the proud Maldivian flag question parliamentarians. We see the Maldivian flag communicating with us, asking whether it was not the time to initiate efforts to impeach the incumbent president,” he said.

He further accused the administration of influencing the judiciary. In this regard, he said it was incumbent President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu’s administration that was former president Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayyoom from being freed, as the administration views him as a threat according to Shifaau.

General Purpose Committee, on Thursday, decided to amend articles 49, 202 and 203 of the parliament’s regulations.

The amendment to Article 49 which provided that the total number of members of parliament should be calculated on the basis of the total number of members instead of seats was put forth by Shifaau.

His amendment sought to omit the members who have resigned while calculating the total number of members of the parliament.

Six members of the parliament had resigned to assume posts in the new administration.

Meanwhile, the amendments to articles 202 and 203 were proposed by the parliament group leader of the Democrats, Central Henvieru MP Ali Azim. They were approved as follows;

• The impeachment of the president or the vice president can only be proceeded once a motion, explaining the reason, with the signatures of one-third of the members is submitted

          (Existing procedure)

• Giving 14-day notice of the motion to the president or the vice president within two days, and tabling the motion for the first working day after the expiration of the notice period

• Allocating a maximum of three hours for the debate on the impeachment motion

Azim has advocated that his amendment was not intended to pave way for impeachment.

If the proposed amendment is passed, the president and the vice president can be impeached by the votes of MDP lawmakers alone, which holds the majority in the parliament. Additionally, it makes the process of impeaching a president or vice president a lot easier than before.

The current composition of the parliament is as follows;

• MDP – 56 MPs
• The Democrats – 13 MPs
• PPM – 2 MPs
• PNC – 2 MPs
• Jumhoory Party – 2 MPs
• MDA – 2 MPs
• Independent – 2 MPs

Reasons an impeachment motion can be initiated against the president or the vice president are as follows;

• Violation of the tenet Islamic religion
• Violation of the constitution
• Misconduct unsuited to the office of the president or the vice president
• Incapacity in undertaking the responsibilities of the president or the vice president

No Maldivian president has been impeached to date. However, two vice presidents were impeached during PPM’s first administration.