Parliament suspends session in protest of Supreme Court ruling

Today's Parliament session has been suspended after Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) Parliamentary Group Members started calling for points of order, raise their voices and crowd near the secretariat in protest of a ruling made by the Supreme Court that was directed at the Parliament.

Deputy Speaker of Parliament Ahmed Nazim, who was chairing today’s session, said that the session has been suspended due to loss of order and that it will resume at 10:00 am.

The session started today with the Supreme Court ruling being announced to the Parliament floor. Soon after the Chair finished announcing the ruling, MDP Parliamentary Group Members started calling for points of order.

Speaking on a point of order, MDP Parliamentary Group Deputy Leader Thoddoo MP Ali Waheed said that he will not allow the Parliament to be dictated by the Supreme Court and that the Parliament shall appoint a person to replace the Civil Service Commission (CSC) President Mohamed Fahmy Hassan, or the session shall not be allowed to proceed at all.

“As if making the seven Supreme Court judges rape the Parliament, the Parliament shall not continue. This Parliament has to announce today itself to appoint a member to the Civil Service Commission. It cannot continue in any other way, not the way you want. Although you and the people in your coalition have cases in the courts and are afraid of the them, we are not afraid. As long as we are here, we will not allow the power of the parliament to be negated,” Ali Waheed said.

After Ali Waheed started raising his voice, other MDP MPs started crowding around the secretariat and shout in protest.

While today’s session has been suspended, the Chair did not made any decision regarding the points of order that were raised.