Parliament on Tuesday passed an Anti-Defection Bill, with 36 votes.

While Tuesday’s sitting started with 27 lawmakers in the parliament chamber, there were a total of 39 MPs at the time of the vote.

The Bill, proposed by Villimale’ MP Ahmed Nihan was submitted to parliament last Wednesday, and passed by the Committee on Independent Institutions last night. The Committee passed it with an amendment, that it will take effect from 13 July 2017, which would mean that the 12 ruling party MPs that switched to the opposition last year would lose their seats. The Bill was submitted to parliament after a ruling by the Supreme Court on 1st February, that ordered the reinstatement of all 12 MPs.

In addition, an amendment to the Judges Act, proposed by ruling Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM)’s deputy MP Abdul Raheem Abdulla, was passed with 38 votes.

Speaking at Tuesdays parliament sitting, MP Abdul Raheem said that “this vote is for the nation, its freedom and future, as well as a token of gratitude to President [Abdulla] Yameen’s services”.

According to the Anti-Defection Bill, lawmakers, elected on political party tickets, will lose their seat if they leave their party, get expelled, or switch parties. The Bill, which states the steps and procedures to be followed in such a case, also states that a party’s ethics committee can unseat a parliamentarian.

The amendments to the Judges Act, proposed by MP Abdul Raheem, seeks to remove judges, if convicted of a criminal offence and the ruling is upheld by the Supreme Court. Presently, a sitting judge “can only be removed if the judicial watchdog finds him guilty of gross incompetence or misconduct and submits a resolution to be passed by a two-thirds majority of parliament”. Opposition parliamentarians continue to boycott parliament sittings, claiming that they are being held unconstitutionally.