‘Ready to serve 24/7’: Parliament extends session for second time

The Parliament extended its current session for the second time on Tuesday, in a move described by Speaker Abdul Raheem Abdulla as a demonstration of how “the majority” of the legislative assembly are ready to service the people round the clock.

The second session of the year had been set to conclude on August 15, but was extended last week to Thursday, citing the need to complete “important work.”

The Parliament took another vote on Tuesday to have it extended to August 27.

The motion passed with a majority vote of 58-9.

While the presidency usually announces any proposal to extend the session at the start of sittings, Abdul Raheem had not mentioned it at the start of Thursday’s session.

After the vote, Abdul Raheem, the chairperson of the ruling People’s National Congress (PNC), which holds a supermajority in the Parliament, remarked that the results of the vote demonstrate how the majority is willing to service the public 24.7.

“The results of the vote alone shows how much the majority is with the people, how they are ready to serve the people 24/7,” he said.

The second extension comes as the ruling party seeks to fast-track a contentious new bill that seeks to grant the central government greater powers to seize land under the jurisdiction of local councils.

The bill, which proposes introducing new provisions to the Decentralization Act, was submitted on August 5 by Thulhaadhoo MP Abdul Hannan Aboobakr, an independent aligned with the ruling party.

The Decentralization Committee, which had previously decided to wrap up its review of the bill by 12:00 pm last Sunday, decided to postpone the deadline to Thursday, after a public petition demanding the withdrawal of the amendments met the signature threshold for debate at the Parliament.