Abdulla Maseeh has decided to resign from his post as Speaker of Parliament.

A credible source confirmed this to RaajjeMV, going on to reveal that he had even prepared his resignation letter. The source told RaajjeMV that Maseeh had even told some members about his decision to resign.

However, RaajjeMV understands that the speaker is yet to officially handover his resignation to the Parliament.

“I have decided to hand in my resignation as a majority of lawmakers have prepared a petition to impeach me, under article 82 (c) of the constitution” said Maseeh, in his message.

Article 82(c) of the Maldives constitution states that the speaker may resign from his post by “writing under his hand addressed to the Deputy Speaker, and the post shall become vacant when the resignation is received by the Deputy Speaker.

RaajjeMV was however, unable to attain a comment from the Speaker at the time of publishing, as he had not answered the station’s calls.

Speaking to RaajjeMV, a ruling party aligned MP said that some PPM MPs had met with Maseeh and notified him of the petition which had received 50 signatures to oust him. Maseeh was evidently advised to proceed accordingly as the decision by the MPs would not be altered further.

Also speaking to RaajjeMV, ruling Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM) Parliamentary Group leader Ahmed Nihan Hussain Manik said that he had received no such information of Maseeh stepping down from office. However, Nihan stated that he is confident if Maseeh were to resign, he would do it as legally mandated under the constitution.

Nihan highlighted that he is doing his best to find out who the MPs are that signed the petition to oust the Speaker, revealing that he knows seven MPs who had signed the petition.

The opposition coalition had on Tuesday revealed that they are preparing to submit a no-confidence motion against Maseeh, revealing that they will be submitting it on Wednesday.

While a no-confidence motion requires 45 signatures from lawmakers, some from PPM and coalition partner Maldives Development Alliance (MDA) had given their signatures, totaling 50.

This would be the fourth impeachment motion against the pro-government Speaker.

The last no-confidence motion in July 2017 was proposed with signatures of 45 MPs, which include lawmakers from the ruling party, but was rejected after the Elections Commission declared that 12 of the signatories have been removed from parliament.

However, the Supreme Court has recently ruled to re-seat four of the 12 MPs, and the opposition coalition has stated that it has full confidence that the rest of the lawmakers will be re-seated as well.