The parliament today was unable to hold a session without Speaker of the Parliament Mohamed Nasheed as the no-confidence motion against his Deputy MP Eva Abdullah was on the agenda today.
The parliament received the no-confidence motion against the Deputy Speaker on the 23rd of last month with signatures from 50 Mps after MP Eva left the Majority seats holder MDP to form a new party named 'The Democrats.
While the motion was not on the agenda for yesterday's session, MPs supporting the coalition government voiced outrage during the session which forced the chair to halt the session.
Yesterday, the Parliament's Secretary General informed the MPs that the no-confidence motion was scheduled for today.
But today, the session could not even start and the reason was explained by Parliament Secretary General Fathimath Niusha. Addressing the MPs present, Niusha said that under Article 205 of the Parliament's Standing Order, only the Speaker of the Parliament can chair a session in which a no-confidence motion would be heard against the Deputy Speaker.
Niusha said that she had highlighted this via a letter to Speaker Nasheed and informed him that he must chair today's session. But the Secretary-General said that since there is a no-confidence motion filed against the Speaker, he had informed the Secretariate that he has excused himself from chairing any sessions until the matter is resolved, today's session cannot be held.
