MP Shareef expelled from Parliament chamber following verbal blows over revisions to Police Act

Parliament Speaker named Maradhoo MP Ibrahim Shareef (Mavota Shareef) and expelled him from the chamber on Wednesday morning, following a verbal dispute over proposed revisions to the Police Act.

Speaker, former President Mohamed Nasheed announced Shareef’s name after he repeatedly raised his voice, disrupting parliamentary proceedings.

Shareef initially resisted when the Sergeant-at-Arms attempted to escort him out of the chamber at Nasheed’s instructions, before eventually leaving.

Nasheed said that the disruption took place due to a difference of opinion between two parliamentarians. He said the disagreement had been regarding “the coup.”

 “You must be wondering what happened. I will not go into details. But there was a conflict of opinion between two honorable parliamentarians regarding the coup,” he said.

Nasheed said the difference in opinion led to the parliamentarians becoming “impassioned”. He said the second parliamentarian involved in the verbal dispute had already left the chamber before he could name him as well.

“Two parliamentarians cannot be named at once. The practice is to name them one by one. Moments after the first parliamentarian was named, the second parliamentarian was nowhere to be seen,” he said.