The Secretariate of Parliament has accepted the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP)-initiated motion of no-confidence against Speaker Mohamed Nasheed and has notified parliament members, the legislature’s administrative body has confirmed.
According to the rules of procedures, a motion of no confidence in the Speaker or Vice-Speaker must be sent to the Secretary-General, the Speaker, and the Members of Parliament (MPs) within three days of the motion.
MDP withdrew its first no-confidence motion after its candidate President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih finished second in the first round of the presidential elections and while it was attempting to seek support from The Democrats, Nasheed’s party, which finished third. Despite its political machinations, MDP decided to revisit the issue of Nasheed’s removal following the party’s defeat in the presidential election runoff.
The current no-confidence motion has the support of 49 MPs.
Nasheed contends that it would be difficult to entertain another no-confidence motion in the same term, an assertion partly based on Article 89(c) of the Rules of Procedure of the Parliament, which states that a rejected bill cannot be reintroduced in the same term. However, some legal experts point out that no-confidence motions are different from bills.
The parliamentary secretariat later announced that it would accept the MDP’s motion and confirmed the decision in a social media post.
A motion of no confidence in the Speaker can proceed if it is backed by one-fourth of the total number of MPs, or at least 22 members. It would then be tabled in Parliament, presided over by the Deputy Speaker, and can result in the Speaker’s removal if passed by a majority of the MPs present and voting.