MPs refrain from debating committee formations

Parliamentarians spent the entire parliament sitting on Tuesday criticising each other and talking about the presidential election campaign, without debating on reconstituting committees.

At the beginning of the sitting, Secretary General Fathimath Niusha announced that the Speaker Mohamed Nasheed had left on an unofficial visit. Deputy Speaker Eva Abdulla has refused to preside until a decision is taken on the no-confidence motion against her.

Niusha asked the longest serving MP Hassan Afeef to preside over the sitting.

The first item on the agenda of the sitting was the change in the way members belonging to political parties and members not belonging to any particular party will be represented in the standing committees of the parliament.

However, 12 MPs spoke in the first half of the session, and each of them spoke in the manner of campaigning for a candidate from their party for the presidential election on September 9.

Afeef repeatedly interrupted the members and urged them to focus on the debate on the formation of committees. However, the members continued to campaign for their candidates, some ferociously.

The first member to try to speak about the formation of the committee was Kudahuvadhoo MP Ahmed Amir. However, he was interrupted by the other members and they continued to shout.

Despite the orders issued by the chair to stop it, they were seen verbally attacking Hassan Afeef, shouting and arguing.

The formation of the committees may take a long time, as no party has been able to agree on the composition of the committees.

The parliamentary committees had to be reconstituted after 12 MDP members from Nasheed's faction left the party to form a party called The Democrats. However, no party could agree on the composition of the committees.

While the parliament was on vacation, the MDP parliamentary group held an extraordinary session at the request of the party.

However, with the registration of The Democrats Party, the number of members representing political parties in parliament has changed again. With that,  it was decided to form committees when the parliament resumed.

Nasheed was joined by 14 members who signed up for The Democrats. However, so far the parliament has been informed that only three of these members have officially informed parliament that they have changed party:

The remaining 11 members have not yet officially informed parliament that they have changed party. Therefore, the formation of parliamentary committees is expected to be delayed.