Parliament SG advises Nasheed 3 ways to end deadlock
Nasheed has already said in a letter to the parliament that he was reluctant to preside under the circumstances.
By
Mariyam Umna Ismail
Parliament Secretary General Fathimath Niusha on Tuesday advised Speaker Mohamed Nasheed on three ways to end the deadlock over the non-consensus among political parties on reconstituting the standing committees.
On the agenda of Tuesday's sitting meeting a no-confidence motion moved against Galolhu North MP Eva Abdulla, seeking her removal from the post of deputy speaker. Secretary general Fathimath Niusha, however, issued a directive as soon as the sitting began, saying that the sitting could not proceed as there was no arrangement in place to chair the sitting.
In her letter to Nasheed on Tuesday, Niusha said:
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With the expiry of the notice sent to Eva, the matter will have to be first on the agenda on Sunday
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The issue was not on the agenda on that day as the work of the general committee, which allocates time for the debate on no-confidence motions, was stalled
"Article 2(b) of the rules of procedure state that the speaker shall serve as the head of all proceedings of the parliament, including sittings and committee sessions in accordance with the constitution, rules of procedure and committees decisions without prejudice to any particular party," Niusha said.
Pointing out that Nasheed was reluctant to preside over the sittings when a no-confidence motion was also filed against himself, Niusha said that the rules of procedure dictate the speaker to preside over the proceedings of no-confidence motions against the deputy speaker. Therefore, based on the discussions with the counsel general, Niusha made three recommendations to resolve the issues:
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The first option is to table the issue of reconstituting the standing committees to the next sitting in order to expedite the work of the general committee, which determines the number of MPs and time allocated for the debate on the no-confidence motion
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The second option is to explicitly delegate the chair of the sitting that debates on the no-confidence motion against Eva to another person and determine the time to be spent on the motion
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The third option is for the speaker to preside over the sitting and table it for a general sitting so that the parliament can decide how to debate the resolution.
"... I humbly request you to ensure that the work on the motion to remove Galolhu North MP Eva Abdulla from the post of deputy speaker of the parliament can be carried out without interruption within the parliamentary system," the secretary general said.
As per the rules of procedure, there is no bar on the speaker to preside over sittings despite a no-confidence motion against him. However, Nasheed has already said in a letter to the parliament that he was reluctant to preside under the circumstances.
