MDP withdraws confidence motions against Nasheed, Eva

The MDP has withdrawn the no-confidence motions against the parliament speaker Mohamed Nasheed and deputy speaker Eva Abdulla.

The motion against Nasheed was signed by 54 MPs in early June last year. The motion stalled as the parliament reached a deadlock on reconstituting the standing committees following the changes in party compositions.

After the results of the presidential election on Saturday, Nasheed told MPs on Sunday that he wanted to move the no-confidence motion against him in Monday's sititng. With that, the no-confidence motion was put on the agenda for Monday's sitting.

After the matter was put on the agenda, the MDP parliamentary group decided to withdraw the motions against Nasheed and Eva Sunday evening. However, Nasheed who presided over Monday's sitting at the beginning decided to continue the matter as the MPs had not withdrawn their signatures by the time required by law.

After adjourning the sitting for an hour as requested by the MDP, the presiding Vilufushi MP Hassan Afeef announced that the motion could not be continued as the number of signatures required by the law had been withdrawn. They include:

“Therefore, the above two motions cannot be taken up in the parliament now as the number of signatures stipulated in the rules of procedure is not enough,” he said.

Provisional results of Saturday's presidential election show main opposition PPM-PNC's Dr Mohamed Muizz leading the polls with 46%, while President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih secured 39%. 

The Democrats candidate, Ilyas Labeeb, who defected from MDP with Nasheed and formed the youngest political party in the country, got about 15,000 votes in Saturday’s polls. The support of Nasheed and The Democrats will be crucial for President Solih in the second round.

Current representation of political parties in parliament: