Committee looking into how details of secret vote were leaked

Parliament’s committee on privileges and ethics is looking into how details of a secret vote were leaked to the public.

Earlier this week, the committee rejected a case against Deputy Minister of the Defence Ministry, Hassan Zameel, who signed a letter to the parliament denying a request to question individual officers in relation to the inquiry into the attempted assassination attempt on Speaker and former President Mohamed Nasheed. Committee on national security services or the 241 committee is probing the security breach that led to the attack.

The letter said that MNDF as an institution would answer on behalf of the officers during the inquiry.  

While the case was submitted by Speaker and former President Mohamed Nasheed, the committee’s decision to reject it has added to the tension within the main ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP).

The committee on privileges and ethics met virtually to make a decision on the matter on Sunday, and a secret vote was taken. The proposal to reject the case stating that there are no grounds for the committee to probe the matter was submitted by Former Defence Minister and MP for Dhangethi constituency Mohamed Nazim.

Shortly after the vote, details were leaked online including who voted in favour of the Jumhooree Party (JP) official’s proposal. Four representatives of Nasheed’s MDP voted in favour; Gan constituency MP Mohamed Wisam, Komandoo constituency MP Hussain Waheed, South-Thinadhoo constituency MP Abdulla Saneef, Milandhoo constituency MP Ali Riza.

This led to added tension within the main ruling party, with an alleged screenshot of messages sent to a MDP Viber group showing Deputy Speaker Eva Abdulla accusing another a member of the committee on privileges and ethics of meddling in committee work on behalf the government.

While the committee members met on Wednesday to review the case where a lawmaker called to hang another to death, South-Thinadhoo MP Saneef called to start the work only after discussing the leak.

Noting that the result of the secret vote being leaked had led to threats on certain members, Saneef said that the committee has to first look into this.

As the committee chat log would have been leaked by a member of the committee, Saneef said that it is important to take steps to ensure such actions do not repeat.

Two proposals were made after discussions on the issue; first to clarify to the media on how the secret vote was carried out and assure that it does not obstruct the ongoing inquiry by the 241 committee, second to forma sub-committee to look into the matter.

Both were approved.