Parliament sitting dedicated to parliamentary system adjourned over lack of quorum

The parliament’s sitting on Monday, which included the letter from Elections Commission (EC) regarding the resolution passed by the parliament to hold a constitutional referendum on changing the system of governance in the Maldives on agenda, had to be adjourned over the lack of quorum.

The Parliament passed a resolution calling for a constitutional referendum to decide on changing the system of governance in Maldives before October 30^th last Wednesday, and informed the decision to EC on Thursday.

EC, citing they had some matters to clarify further, sent a letter to the parliament.

The letter was put on the agenda for Monday’s sitting. Nasheed, in a press conference on Monday, said he will submit two works related to the referendum on Monday, including work on an information paper regarding features of the parliamentary system.

Speaking as the chair of the seventh sitting of the third session of the parliament on Monday morning – Nasheed said only the attendance of an additional two members was required to meet the quorum to hold the sitting.

“This is the last week of the presidential election. Therewith, parties will have to be engaged in campaign activities. As I view it, this falls within the purview of parliament’s works,” he said.

Nasheed said it is only concerning if MPs are spending time in the parliament’s courtyard, without entering the floor during a sitting, while he finds no issue if MPs' lack of attendance is attributed to campaign-related works.

After stalling without commencing the sitting for a short while – Nasheed announced that the sitting cannot be held, subsequently adjourning for the day. He added that an additional sitting during this week will be slated based on the outcome of discussions held with main ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), which holds the supermajority in the parliament.

“If they can attend, I will work on scheduling a sitting of the parliament,” he added.

The resolution submitted by Hulhudhoo MP Ilyas Labeeb, a member of the Democrats, was passed with the votes of MDP MPs.

It originally called for a referendum to be held before November 30, but Ilyas later amended the resolution to change the deadline to October 30.

The resolution was passed by the votes of 31 MPs out of the 32 MPs in attendance.