Committee passes to dismiss ACC, EC’s vice presidents and three members

Parliament’s Independent Institutions Committee has decided to dismiss a total of five members from the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and Elections Commission (EC) including vice presidents of both commissions.

No-confidence motions against several members of independent institutions including Civil Service Commission (CSC)’s president Mohamed Nasir were submitted to the Parliament on November 11th.

The motions accepted and sent to the Committee for the review were:

• A motion to dismiss Nasih from the CSC
• A motion to dismiss ACC vice president Abdul Salam and Member Thoha Mohamed
• A motion to dismiss EC vice president Ali Nashath and members Mohamed Asif and Dr. Mohamed Zahir

The no-confidence motion against the individuals claimed that they were not fulfilling their responsibilities as members of the commissions while accusing them of misusing their powers.

The meeting of the Independence Institutions Committee slated for Sunday to review the no-confidence motions was held behind closed doors. Reliable sources confirmed to Sun that the Committee voted in favor of dismissing all of them apart from Nasih.

The move comes as the Parliament reviews bills submitted by the government to empower the president to appoint presidents and vice presidents to both the ACC and the EC.

The bills were sent to the Independent Institutions Committee for review on November 5.

President and vice presidents of ACC and EC are currently elected with an internal vote taken among members of the respective commissions. The results of the vote need to be submitted to the president and the Parliament within 28 hours.

But with the legislative changes, presidents and vice presidents of the two commissions will be nominated by the country’s president. The nominations will be vetted by the Parliament and will require parliamentary approval. Resignations of presidents and vice presidents of the commissions will also need to be submitted to the country’s president.

Lawmakers from the main ruling People’s National Congress (PNC), who hold a supermajority in the Parliament, have expressed support for the bills, especially with respect to the ACC. They said that ACC has repeatedly failed to properly investigate major acts of corruption.

However, lawmakers from the main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) accuse the government of attempting to undermine the independence and autonomy of institutions such as the ACC and EC, and exerting influence over such institutions.