Parliament schedules no-confidence motions against deputy speaker, ministers

The Parliament has set no-confidence motions against Attorney General Ibrahim Riffath, Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid, and Deputy Speaker Eva Abdulla in its agenda.

According to documents released by the Parliament on Thursday, the motion against Riffath was scheduled for May 31, the motion against Shahid for June 6, and the motion against Eva for June 11.

The motions against Riffath and Shahid were submitted by the opposition alliance, composed of MPs from the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM), People’s National Congress (PNC), Jumhoory Party (JP), Maldives National Party (MNP), and the faction that broke apart from the main ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) who are now working on registering a new party – The Democrats.

The opposition alliance filed the motions accusing the government of failure to act in the best interests of the people in the case that was submitted to the International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) over the disputed maritime territory between Maldives and Mauritius.

Both motions were submitted with signatures of 13 MPs.

Meanwhile, the motion against Eva was submitted by pro-government MPs from MDP after Eva left the party. Eva was one of 12 MPs loyal to the party’s leader Mohamed Nasheed who left MDP after Central Henveiru MP Ali Azim was expelled from the party for his involvement in the opposition alliance.

The motion against Eva was submitted with the endorsement of 50 MPs, which is more than the 43 votes needed to dismiss her.