Committee re-composition stalls with delay in nominations from MDP

The current stall in re-composition of the permanent parliamentary committees is due to the failure of the ruling MDP in submitting their nominations to the committees, says Speaker Mohamed Nasheed.

There were two items in the agenda for Tuesday’s sitting; a decision on the letter submitted by the Elections Commission (EC) regarding a referendum on a change in the system of governance, and the amendments to the constitution submitted by North Maafannu MP Imthiyaz Fahmy.

Opening the sitting, former president Nasheed said committees had passed the nominations submitted by the parties for committees during the last sitting, but the work was now stalled because MDP has yet to submit their nominations.

Nasheed said that only PPM-PNC and the Democrats had submitted nominations.

“We are unable to conduct the work of committees because we haven’t received the names, especially from MDP. We hope to receive the nominations from MDP, have the nominations called to vote, and resume the work of committees,” he said.

Over a dozen MPs from the MDP had walked out of the party following internal conflict in earlier this year – prompting the need to re-compose the committees. Amid the turmoil, MDP submitted no-confidence motions against both the speaker and deputy speaker.

They recused themselves from presiding over sittings, leaving the Parliament at a deadlock.

The Parliament needed to re-compose the committees again, when Nasheed and MPs loyal to him joined a new party – the Democrats. More MPs switched between MDP and the Democrats later, prompting the need to re-compose the committees, again.