Our work does not end today, will announce next step soon- Opposition

The opposition coalition has said that it does not believe that Monday’s no-confidence vote against the speaker, and that a motion will be resubmitted “soon”.

Speaker Abdulla Mohamed Maseeh survived the vote, with the 48 MPs present voting against it.

Voting was to commence at 1:30 pm on Monday, but the deputy speaker Moosa Manik was forced to halt sessions due to the protests inside the chamber, over decision to carry out roll call vote at the last minute, ‘without a valid reason’.

During the break, a number of opposition MPs were dismissed from the parliament chambers, with the rest opting to abstain from the vote, including MP for Dhiggaru constituency MP Ahmed Faris Maumoon- who had led the motion-, parliamentary group leader of Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) Mp Ibrahim Solih and Maamigilli MP, Jumhooree Party leader Qasim Ibrahim and Adhaalath Party’s sole representative Makunudhoo MP Anara Naeem. Faris represents former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom’s faction of the ruling Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM).

Leader of all four parties, Maumoon, Qasim, former President Mohamed Nasheed and Sheikh Imran Abdulla signed an agreement on Friday, to work ‘jointly and together’ within parliament and in the political environment.

Work does not end today- MP Solih

MP Ibrahim Solih

After skipping the vote, the opposition lawmakers spoke to the press, with MP Solih saying that the opposition coalition’s work “does not stop after today’s parliament session”.

He said Monday’s parliament session was “proof that sessions are being held in violation to the Constitution, parliament rules and regulations, as well as democratic principles”.

Solih added that “what we saw is that the government does not trust its parliamentarians,” and that if they had the trust, “they would not have had to call out each member separately for their vote”.

Decision to carry out roll call vote was held using the electronic voting system- MP Qasim

MP Qasim Ibrahim

MP Qasim also noted that Monday’s session had been held parliament regulations, adding that there were two such votes recently and that the vote held ‘under the normal system’.

He criticized over the fact that the decision to carry out roll call vote ‘was held using the electronic voting system’.

Qasim shared the same sentiments as Solih, saying that they had to resort to roll call vote due to 'lack of trust in their members’.

Will announce next step soon- MP Faris

MP Ahmed Faris Maumoon

Dhiggaru MP Faris said that he does not believe that they had failed in their work, but that Monday’s session was 'clear proof that parliament sessions are held in violation of regulations'.

He said that it is clear that the government will lose in a vote held within parliament regulations.

Faris said that the roll call vote was held to influence the votes, adding that the no-confidence vote against Maseeh was not 'free and fair’.

The parliamentarian said that they will announce their next step 'soon', and that more members will be joining the evergrowing opposition.