Parliament puts off approval of rejected ministers

The Parliament has decided to postpone the nominations sent by President Mohammed Muizzu for approval of the three ministers who were rejected by the parliament the first time

President Muizzu's first cabinet appointed 22 ministers and sent them to parliament for approval. However, the opposition controlled parliament had rejected the nominations of three ministers

The three ministers who were not approved by the parliament are:

President Muizzu however, re-appointed the three later the same day in what has been described as blatant defiance of parliamentary powers. Approval for these ministers were sent back to parliament on the 6th of this month again.

Meanwhile, Galolhu North MP and former Deputy Speaker of Parliament Eva Abdullah had moved a resolution in Parliament on 31st of last month saying that the re-appointment of ministers without the consent of Parliament was unconstituional.

The Speaker of the Parliament, Mohammed Aslam, said in a notice at the opening of Tuesday's session that the three ministers who were not approved have been re-submitted for approval.

"I believe that the passage of the resolution will tell us what the parliament wants to do about this issue. Therefore, I intend to postpone the scheduling of the approval case until the parliament decides on the resolution," Aslam said.

According to Aslam, in view of the procedure followed by parliament in such cases where ministers rejected by parliament are reappointed and re-sent for approval again, the parliament has not given its approval in the past.

Aslam was referring to the 12 August 2010 appointment of the first Attorney General to the Cabinet of President Mohammed Nasheed. He was not approved by the Parliament. Nasheed, too, had reappointed him and sent back to the parliament for his approval again. However, the parliament did not approve him on either occasion and Nasheed later appointed another person to the post and obtained parliamentary approval.

According to the Constitution, ministers in the Cabinet must have the approval of Parliament. The Supreme Court ruled in 2010 that no minister can remain in the cabinet without parliament consent.

The preliminary debate on the resolution moved by Eva on the re-appointment of ministers rejected by the Parliament is currently underway. Eva's resolution called on President Muizzu to consider the re-appointment of three other ministers and to respect the Constitution and act in accordance with it.

The resolution also said that the President's decision despite a Supreme Court judgement stating that no minister can hold office without the approval of Parliament is a clear challenge to the legitimacy of Parliament and violates the Constitution and the law.