The government coalition has again failed to pass the bill to give more legal powers to presidential commissions, after it was placed on the agenda for a third time.

43 MPs are required to be in attendance to pass a bill that affects the public, but only 36 were present during the vote call at Tuesday’s sitting.

The last two calls for a vote also failed due to lack of quorum.

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.

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