Committee passes amendment which could force out confidence vote against Maseeh and Moosa

General Committee has passed an amendment that has the potential to force out the no confidence motions pending against the Speaker, Abdulla Maseeh Mohamed and the Deputy Speaker, Riko Moosa Manik.

The committee passed to make amendment to Article 175 of the Parliament Regulations. The regulation now says that 15 signatures are required to file a no confidence motion against the Speaker or Deputy Speaker of the Parliament.

But the amendment filed by the committee, if passed, would require 42 signatures to file a no confidence motion.

The amendment report has been put on the agenda for the parliament sitting tomorrow. After the debate, a vote would be taken at 1:30 p.m. to pass the amendment at the floor.

The no confidence motion filed against Maseeh was filed with 31 signatures and the motion against Moosa was filed with 15 signatures. Which means if the new amendment is passed, the both motions will have to be resubmitted.

According to the Chair of the committee, Ali Arif, they thought about making the amendment following an amendment made by the US Congress.

With the opposition working against the government, the US Supreme Court advised that the no confidence motions should be filed with a number of signatures close to the majority.

While the oppositions have submitted a no confidence motion against the Speaker, Maseeh with 31 signatures today, a no confidence motion was filed against the Speaker twice before. Once, the vote was lost by the opposition and another time, they retracted the motion.