British High Commissioner to Sri Lanka and Ambassador to the Maldives James Dauris has said that Attorney General Mohamed Anil had said back in May that some MPs from the ruling Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM) were no longer with the Party.

He made the statement in a tweet posted on Wednesday, amid the controversy caused by the statement released by Elections Commission (EC), stripping sitting MPs of their Parliament seats.

In his tweet Dauris said that at the EU Maldives policy dialogue on 23^rd May Attorney General Mohamed Anil had insisted that MPs were no longer members of PPM.

Out of the 11 MPs from PPM who had signed the confidence motion on Speaker Abdullah Maseeh, 10 had requested their resignation from the party.