Parliament sitting interrupted by power outage

The power went out at the People’s Majlis building on Monday morning interrupting the first sitting held as part of an extension to the current session.

The Parliament was originally scheduled to go to recess on Friday after concluding the current session. However, the Parliament, due to important working pending, lawmakers voted last week to extend the session by a week last week.

Monday’s sitting began as scheduled at 9:00am, however, was interrupted by power outage about 24 minutes later.

Prior to the power outage, the names of nominees by the President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu for Civil Service Commission (CSC) were announced and the matter was forwarded to committee for review.

Afterward, Speaker Abdul Raheem opened the floor for debate on the Public Accounts Committee’s report on the Insurance Bill. The first to speak was Ibrahim Falah, leader of the ruling PNC’s parliamentary group, followed by Huraa MP Anaara Naeem, also from the PNC.

The power went out shortly after she began her remarks, at around 9:24am.

Following inquiries, Speaker Abdul Raheem announced that the sitting would be suspended temporarily, with the cause of the power outage still unknown.

However, State Electric Company Limited (STELCO) which provided electricity in the greater Male’ area said there have been no power outage today in any of the areas it serves.  

Notably, there has been two complete power outages in Male’ area recently, prompting public backlash.