Male

Malé City Council has scheduled a no-confidence vote against Mayor Adam Manik. Deputy Mayor Ahmed Samaah reported that there will be a meeting tomorrow at 10 am in which council members would decide on the matter.

The motion for no-confidence against the Mayor has been made by Mr. Mohamed Falah who lost to Mr. Manik in his run for the office of Mayor. Attempts to contact Falah were not successful, and Samah said that he was not aware of the grounds on which the motion had been made. However, it has been confirmed that a number of Councilors from the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) which holds a comfortable majority in the Council have initiated the motion against Mr. Manik, who is from the same party. There are only two members from Divehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP), the main opposition, in Male’ City Council and they are also reported to have supported the motion.

MDP Councilor, Mr. Mohamed Abdul Kareem said that he was very disappointed at this motion, and that he was concerned over MDP councilors’ “ill-treatment” of party members. He also claimed that the motion of no-confidence had been scheduled in contravention of the regulations stipulating the procedure for such affairs. “No such problems can be included in the agenda of a meeting without giving at least two days notice. However, this issue has been included in the agenda for tomorrow only today, as per the devices of some councilors,” said Mr. Mohamed.