Extraordinary sitting slated for Sunday for cabinet approval and election law amendment

An extraordinary sitting of the parliament, out of session, has been slated for Sunday to undertake work related to the approval of the cabinet and the amendment to the law to postpone the parliamentary election.

The agenda for the sitting includes the reading of the parliament’s Government Oversight Committee on approval of the cabinet and the bill submitted to amend the General Elections Act to ban national elections during Ramadan.

The first reading of the bill submitted by opposition MDP’s Ihavandhoo MP Mohamed Shifau is on the agenda for the sitting.

In addition to this, the first reading of the bill to amend the Land Act submitted by MP Meekail Ahmed Naseem is also on the agenda of the sitting.

The extraordinary sitting was sought jointly by MDP and The Democrats – the opposition parties had revealed during a joint press conference on Wednesday evening.

The bill to amend the General Elections Act has been filed after the Elections Commission’s (EC) decision to hold the parliamentary election on March 17th – which falls on Ramadan.

All political parties are against this.

While the parliament is presently in recess – the new session of the parliament is set to commence on February 5th.