The bill to give more authority to presidential commissions has been placed on the agenda for a third time.

Government coalition MPs failed to pass the bill on Monday due to lack of quorum.

43 MPs need to be in attendance to vote on a bill that affects the bill. However, there were not enough MPs present the last two times.

Alifushi MP Mohamed Rasheed proposed the bill on behalf of the government to give more authority to the commission on murders and disappearances and the commission on corruption and asset recovery to investigate their cases more efficiently.

The government coalition’s parliamentary group has 47 MPs, but group leader Abdulla Riyaz said that some of their members have been refusing to vote, likely because they have been embroiled in cases of corruption.

Some of the MPs who represented the previous ruling party PPM defected to the now government coalition partner JP after President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih assumed office. This caused JP’s parliamentary group to increase to 22 members, making it the minority party.