Parliament votes to ignore top court ruling on quorum count
Pro-government MPs say the Supreme Court ruling will bring the total number of members to 87, including the seven who resigned.
By
Mohamed Muzayyin Nazim
The Parliament has once again passed a motion to count the total number of members in the Parliament by 80.
On December 18, 2013, the parliament passed an amendment to Rule 49(g), (h) and (i) of the Rules of Procedure of Parliament to count the total number of members of Parliament from 80, after several members left their parliament seats to take up ministerial portfolios in the new government.
With this the Attorney General moved the Supreme Court to quash the amendments, which ruled that the decision to count the number of members without including all the seats was unconstitutional.
The judgement said:
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It was a decision made beyond the authority of the parliament
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However, since articles have now been cancelled by the Parliament and there is no further action to be taken against them. The decision was taken because the amendments were in Article 49 when the case was filed
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When the matter was referred to the Supreme Court, the General Committee of Parliament removed the disputed article. Then the rephrased articles were included in Article 241 of the Rules of Procedure.
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The amendments were passed at the February 19 session
In the first session of the Parliament held after the Supreme Court ruling, Speaker Mohammed Aslam moved the amendments to Article 241 to be cancelled.
Opposition MDP and Democrats members who debated the motion said the Supreme Court's ruling had not revoked the disputed articles. Therefore, the total number should be counted as 80, they said.
However, pro-government MPs say the Supreme Court ruling will bring the total number of members to 87, including the seven who resigned.
During the debate, MDP MP Saud Hussain moved that the total number of members of Parliament be counted from 80 in accordance with the amendment brought by the General Committee. The motion was supported by Democrats MP Eva Abdullah. Thus:
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The motion passed with 23 votes out of 25 present
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The two MPs who voted against the motion were Abdullah Jabir of Kashidhoo constituency and Abdul Ghani Abdul Hakeem of Kurendhoo constituency who recently signed up to the PNC
With that, the Speaker of the Parliament, Aslam, announced that the total number of members of the Parliament would be counted at 80.
