‘Qasim cannot hold office of president when required, is he eligible for post of speaker?’, asks Azima Shakoor

Legal Affairs Minister at the President’s Office, Azima Shakoor has questioned whether MP Qasim Ibrahim is eligible for the role of parliament speaker, noting that the Constitution states that the speaker shall hold office “where the president and vice president are disabled from holding office”.

Jumhooree Party leader Qasim, 68, was elected as the speaker last Thursday, following the resignation of Abdulla Maseeh Mohamed from the post.

Back in 2015, parliament had passed the first amendment to the constitution, 109(c), setting an age limit of 30 to 65 years for the presidency and the vice presidency.

Azima, in a Facebook post late Saturday night, noted that the newly elected speaker is over the age limit, adding that this “does not allow him to hold the office of president even temporary”.

“The constitution does not in writing give any specific requirements to hold the office of the speaker other than be a member of the parliament,” she said, adding that a lot of people are debating “whether the speaker is eligible to hold office of speaker”.

Noting that the argument is that the parliament speaker must be able to hold office of the head of state “where required”, Azima questioned whether articles 123 and 124 “is by default imposing a new qualification on the speaker”.

Furthermore, she noted that there are arguments that the constitution “does not specifically say that the speaker has to have the qualifications required to hold office of the president” and that “if necessary, the deputy speaker can take over the office of the president under articles 124 and 125”, even while the speaker is still in office.

Noting that this raises the question whether the deputy speaker is more senior that the speaker in such circumstances, Azima said that this is something that has to be answered by the parliament’s counsel-general.

“The speaker of parliament is given the temporary custody of office of the head of state, because he is the only other person who is elected by the people,” adding that “this is the reason why the decision was taken by the constitutional assembly”.

Further noting that the constitution "is silent on this," Azima emphasized that it will be interesting to hear the parliament’s response.

The first amendment to the Constitution was passed with 78 votes, with opposition Maldivian Democratic Party and Qasim’s Jumhooree Party issuing three-line whips for its MPs to back the amendment.

The move was to pave way for then tourism minister Ahmed Adeeb to be eligible for the post of vice president, as well as to disqualify Qasim and former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom from running for presidency. Adeeb was 33 at the time.