Nasheed reassumes parliament’s chair after recusation

Parliament Speaker Mohamed Nasheed, on Thursday, resumed chairing parliamentary sittings after days of refusal in the face of a no-confidence motion against him.

A parliamentary sitting was slated for Thursday morning after a deadlock rendered the Parliament unable to hold sittings in the past two days. The agenda for the sitting is the debate on determining the percentage of representation of political parties and independent members on permanent parliamentary committees.

Nasheed, opened Thursday’s sitting, as the chair.

In his opening remarks, Nasheed blamed the parliament’s deadlock on simultaneous no-confidence motions against the parliament’s speaker and deputy speaker.

Nasheed said he chose to preside over Thursday’s sitting despite recusing himself from presiding over sittings in light of the no-confidence motion submitted against him with the signatures of 54 lawmakers because all of parliament’s work was at a halt which is of great concern to him.

“I am here to preside because as I believe, I have to protect the interests that are greater than my reasons [for recusation}. That is the interests of Maldivian citizens and the Maldives. The parliament being in a deadlock does not constitute to upholding these interests,” he said.

Nasheed also accused main ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) and other branches of the government of failing to provide assistance in resolving the parliament’s deadlock, which he described as extremely disheartening.

Both Nasheed and Deputy Speaker Eva Abdulla recused themselves from presiding over sittings following no-confidence motions filed against them by MDP.

Vilufushi MP Hassan Afeef had filled in for three consecutive days – the maximum allowed under the Parliament’s standing orders. No sittings were held in the past two days as a result.