The Parliament has been forced to postpone today's session that had a no-confidence resolution on its agenda against the Speaker of the Parliament Mohamed Nasheed.
The Parliament delayed the session as Deputy Speaker MP Eva Abdullah called in sick today.
Parliament Secretary General Fathimath Niusha said that once the Parliament received the resolution against the Speaker earlier this month, it had put the resolution on today's agenda as per Article 25 of the Parliament Standing Order.
This Article also stipulates that any other pending parliamentary work can only be cleared once the resolution against the Speaker is resolved.
Niusha also said that as per the Parliament Standing Order, the Speaker has a right to speak on behalf of himself and that the Speaker has been invited to today's session.
Since the Speaker cannot chair a parliamentary session that has a no-confidence resolution on the agenda against the Speaker, the Deputy Speaker must chair the session.
The Parliament Secretary General further said that this was informed to MP Eva but that the Deputy Speaker had called in sick one and half hours before the session began.
Nisuha then said that the session has now been postponed for tomorrow and that the MPs would be duly informed. She then proceeded to end the parliamentary session.
MPs from the Parliament Majority Party MDP voiced their anger at the decision and demanded the Secretary-General hold the session with another MP as the chair.
