Parliament to vote on new Deputy Speaker at 01:00 pm

The Parliament has scheduled a sitting for Sunday afternoon to elect a new Deputy Speaker, after Dhiggaru MP Ahmed Nazim resigned from the role ahead of a no-confidence vote pushed by his own party.

The sitting is set to begin at 01:00 pm.

Nazim, once seen as one of the most influential figures within the ruling People’s National Congress (PNC), announced his resignation at 08:36 am – less than a half-an-hour ahead of a Parliament sitting on the no-confidence motion against him.

At the morning sitting, Speaker Abdul Raheem Abdulla officially announced Nazim’s resignation, and concluded the sitting.

He said another sitting would be held at 01:00 pm.

While the Parliament has yet to release the agenda for the sitting, Sun has learnt that it is being held to vote on Nazim’s replacement.

The motion against Nazim, endorsed by 73 lawmakers from his party, was filed with the Parliament on May 14. It accuses Nazim of repeatedly abusing his office to create strife and disharmony within the Parliament, but does not mention any specifics.

Nazim described the allegations against him as baseless, but said that he had decided to resign as the motion was endorsed by all members of the ruling party’s parliamentary group – which had elected him  to the role in the first place.

Nazim, who was pulled in late April from key parliamentary committees he sat in, was kicked out at around 06:00 am May 13 from a WhatsApp group for PNC parliamentarians managed by President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu. The party made the decision to remove the Dhiggaru representative from his position as Deputy Speaker during a parliamentary group meeting the same day.

A senior parliamentarian from the party told Sun that Nazim was instructed to resign, and that the party decided to file a no-confidence motion to force him out after he refused.

While the exact reason why PNC turned against Nazim is unclear, former President Mohamed Nasheed recently the party filed the no-confidence motion because he and 23 other parliamentarians from the party planned to cross party lines and submit an impeachment motion against President Muizzu.

However, this claim is denied by the ruling party.

Nasheed also recently claimed that President Muizzu planned to meet Nazim in Singapore during his trip over the Eid holidays. However, the claim was denied by chief government spokesperson Mohamed Hussain Shareef (Mundhu), who maintained that the trip was a private family vacation.