EC hesistant to clearly say we
Defense Ministry says Parliament had confirmed the MP was no longer an MP
MP Saudhullah Hilmy in Parliament: he is one of the MPs facing backlash over their anti-Government stance
Thinadhoo North Constituency MP Saudhullah Hilmy says that he is yet to recieve any response to the letter he had sent to the Parliament and Elections Commission (EC) over the status of his seat.
The MP said he had sent three letters to Parliament and several to EC; all are yet to be answered.
A previous response sent in by EC asked the Parliamentarian to write to 'related' agencies over the matter of his seat. However, EC was the agency that had made the initial decision that stripped him from his seat.
As per the instructions issued to him, MP Saudhullah had sent a letter to Maldives National Defense Force (MNDF) who are in charge of security matters at the Parliament.
A letter sent in by MNDF said that they were informed by the Parliament that EC had said that byelections are to be held for the Thinadhoo South area, given that the seat was now vacant.
In response to this, the Parliamentarian tweeted that there was no rest for the Commission, irrespective of the status of the seat. He said the EC had violated the Constitution, laws and rulings of the Supreme Court.
Supreme Court ruling on July 13th criminalized floor crossing, citing that if an MP had defected, resigned or was removed from his or her party, then that MP will lose his Parliament seat. therefore, this move by PPM can be deemed as an attempt to remove MP Mohamed from his seat. However, all the MPs who had faced removal had resigned from PPM on their own accord.
