Sitting to decide regulation change on Speaker no-confidence begins

Monday’s People’s Majlis sitting is underway with lawmakers due to vote on an amendment passed by General Purpose Committee of the Majlis which will means no-confidence petitions on Speaker and Deputy Speaker of Majlis will need minimum 42 signatures in order to be accepted.

General Purpose Committee held an emergency meeting last Sunday, during which it voted to amend Article 175 of People’s Majlis regulation which currently allows acceptance of no-confidence petitions on Speaker and Deputy Speaker of Majlis filed with signatures of minimum 15 lawmakers.

The committee voted to amend the regulation so no-confidence petitions require signatures of minimum 42 lawmakers.

General Purpose Committee’s report on its decision was read during the Majlis session this Monday morning by Chair of the committee, Kelaa MP Ali Arif.

The amendment needs to be passed by the Majlis before it can be executed.

Lawmakers debated on the amendment after the committee’s report was read, and are due to vote on the amendment when Majlis sitting resumes at 1:30 pm.

Majlis is scheduled to vote on a no-confidence motion on Deputy Speaker of Majlis, MP Reeko Moosa Manik coming Tuesday and a no-confidence motion on Speaker Abdulla Maseeh Mohamed was submitted to the Majlis last Sunday.

Reeko’s no-confidence motion was submitted with 15 signatures and Maseeh’s with 31 signatures.

This therefore means both the motions will be kicked out of the Majlis if the regulation change is passed this Monday.

Government-aligned lawmakers said the regulation change was pushed to stop the opposition from “harassing” the government.