MDP PG OK’s no-confidence motion against Eva

The Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP)’s parliamentary group has voted in favor of submitting a no-confidence motion against Deputy Speaker Eva Abdulla.

MDP’s PG leader Mohamed Aslam confirms they took the vote Monday morning.

But we haven’t yet decided when we will submit the motion, he said.

MDP had begun gathering signatures for a no-confidence motion against Eva on Sunday, which Aslam said was done at the initiative of the party’s lawmakers.

Aslam said the motion received 22 endorsements on Sunday – the minimum requirement for the submission of a no-confidence motion against the Deputy Speaker.

The decision comes after Eva chaired the second sitting held on Sunday to hear a no-confidence motion against Speaker Mohamed Nasheed, her cousin and fellow Democrats member. It had marked the first time for her to attend a sitting since October 29. She had also called in sick for the sitting held on Sunday morning, during which Vilufushi MP Hassan Afeef, who chaired the sitting, rejected the motion and instructed the MDP to re-submit it, agreeing with members of his party Democrats that the it did not fit the standards for a motion.

The Parliament’s Secretariat refused to back the decision and rescheduled the motion for the afternoon. But Eva, who chaired the sitting, said she did not believe the motion could be processed given the presidency’s earlier dismissal of the case.

Following the decision, the MDP-led Privileges and Ethics Committee decided that both Eva and Afeef had violated the privileges afforded to lawmakers.

Eva also chaired the sitting on Monday morning, during which the government had been set to present the 2024 state budget and the 2023 supplementary budget. However, it was suspended due to lack of quorum, after MDP lawmakers – who hold a supermajority at the Parliament – refused to enter the chamber.

Eva said she would continue to ring the quorum bell and wait for the lawmakers, a decision which could potentially hinder the second sitting scheduled, for 11:00 am, during which the Parliament is set to hear the no-confidence motion against Nasheed.