JP parliamentary group was promised Majlis speakership: MP Riyaz

The office of Speaker of the People’s Majlis was promised, through agreement between the government coalition, to the Jumhooree Party (JP), says MP Abdulla Riyaz.

Riyaz, leader of JP’s parliamentary group, said as such in an interview with RaajjeTV on Sunday night, where he accused fellow coalition partner Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) of refusing to honour this agreement.

The Kimbidhoo constituency representative reiterated his, and JP’s stand, that an agreement on how to divide seats in the People’s Majlis for the election held in April stood, and that MDP was in breach of it as well.

The lawmaker said that the decision comes down to whether MDP is now willing to acknowledge and adhere to the agreement, despite reneging on the agreement on dividing constituencies.

MP Riyaz said that it depends ‘ultimately on the level of integrity’ the party’s leadership has, adding that MDP’s actions has been a cause for other parties in the coalition to ‘do as we please’.

JP said that the agreement was finalised during the ‘18/19 committee’, which stood to review policy and draft a joint manifesto ahead of the 2018 presidential election.

Recognizing the majority MDP has amassed in the Majlis following the election on April 6th, Riyaz said that the party has power to do as it wishes, and ‘talk of this agreement is in vain’.

Aminath Nadira, the vice president of the Maumoon Reform Movement, has also acknowledged that an agreement dividing parliamentary constituencies among members of the government coalition stood.

However, MDP maintains that while such an agreement was drafted, it had not been signed by all members of the coalition, and so is not enforceable.