No-confidence vote against Eva slated for Sunday

The Parliament is scheduled to take a vote on the no-confidence motion submitted against Deputy Speaker Eva Abdulla next week.

According to information published on the Parliament’s website, the vote will take place on Sunday.

The no-confidence motion against Eva was submitted by her former party, the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), with the endorsement of 50 MPs, on November 13.

It is the second such motion submitted against her by the MDP, which holds a majority at the Parliament.

Eva received a 14-day notice for the motion on November 16.

The latest motion stems from the allegation Eva deliberately blocked the no-confidence motion submitted against former Speaker Mohamed Nasheed, her cousin.

Eva and Nasheed, along with a dozen other MPs, left the MDP to form a new party, the Democrats, earlier this year.

The MDP had originally submitted no-confidence motions against both Nasheed and Eva earlier this year. The motion against Eva was submitted with the endorsement on 50 MPs in May, and the motion against Nasheed followed, with the endorsement of 54 MPs, in June.

But the MDP withdrew the motions in September, while the party was engaged in negotiations with the Democrats for the presidential runoff election

MDP submitted the second no-confidence motion against Nasheed with the endorsement of 49 MPs on October 9.

It was initially tabled for October 26, but had remained stymied after Eva called in sick all through that week.

The Parliament’s Secretariat had decided that only the Deputy Speaker can chair sittings in the event of a no-confidence motion against the Speaker.

This prompted the MDP to lodge a constitutional case with the Supreme Court, which, on November 9, found the Secretariat’s decision to halt the motion unconstitutional.

Nasheed resigned a few days later, on November 13. He was replaced as Speaker by Mohamed Aslam, who, up until then, had been MDP’s parliamentary group leader.