MDP Parliamentary Group has decided to take back the no-confidence motions it submitted against Speaker of the Parliament Mohamed Nasheed and Deputy Speaker of the Parliament Eva Abdullah.
MDP PG submitted the motions back in June after saying that both the Speaker and his Deputy were flouting the rules and regulations of the Parliament. The motion against Nasheed was submitted with the signatures of 54 MPs while 50 MPs signed the motion against Eva.
Though today is a public holiday, the Majlis session scheduled for the day went on with Nasheed's no-confidence motion on the agenda.
Starting the session, Speaker Nasheed said that the motion against him would continue on as 22 MPs did not withdraw their signs from the motion. He then left the chamber with MP for Vilifushi Constituency Hassan Afeef presiding the session.
Speaking on the matter, MP Maradhoo Constituency Ibrahim Shareef said that the MDP PG has decided to take back the no-confidence motion against Speaker Nasheed and that MDP had the signs to withdraw the motion.
He added that there was no point in debating on the issue.
While some MPs spoke about the long-standing motion and how to proceed on the matter, MP Afeef decided to give a 15-minute recess for MDP to collect the signatures needed to withdraw the motion against the Speaker.
While the break went on for about 1 hour, upon resumption MP Afeef announced that 33 MPs who signed the motions against Nasheed and Eva had taken back their signatures and notified the Parliament Secretariate.
With this change, 17 MPs' signs remained against Eva and 21 MPs' signs remained against Nasheed. But MP Afeef said that any motions against the Speaker and Deputy can only proceed with the backing of 1/4 of the MPs and that this was 22 MPs out of the 87 MPs elected to the current parliament.
MP Afeef further said that the Parliament could not proceed with these two motions as they did not have adequate backing from the MPs and then concluded today's session.
