The Maldives Parliament, for the very first time in its history, has commenced its discourse sessions via web-conferencing.
Maldives parliament decided to resume its sessions through web-conferencing amid the COVID-19 outbreak.
Earlier, Maldives government announced on temporarily closing standard operational conduct of all government institutions along with the parliament.
In Monday's session, members of the parliament deliberated on the motion filed by ruling Maldivian Democratic Party's parliamentary group leader Ali Azim; regarding the Economic Recovery Plan by the government and its execution.
Parliament has utilized Microsoft Teams which is a unified communication and collaboration platform combining chat, video meetings, file storage and application integration.
The parliament held its 23 sitting of the first term in 2020 on Monday, 30 march 2020.
The web-conference channel was attended by a total of 92 individuals which included parliament Speaker Mohamed Nasheed, parliamentarians along with administrative staff responsible in recording and compiling member discourses and agendas.
Parliament members will be informed of sessions and agenda via SMS; with notifications sent to members 15 minutes ahead and 5 minutes ahead of every sitting.
Moreover, members will be notified if the parliament quorum is not met or when the Speaker calls for a voting.
The island nation is exercising a semi-lockdown in light of the viral pandemic which has been spreading across the globe at an alarming pace.
Meanwhile, today's parliament session marks the first ever for a country's legislative body to commence its debates via web-conference.
