Amendment to Method for Counting Total MPs in Parliament Passed

Yesterday, the General Committee of Parliament made the decision to delete the articles which changed the method of counting the total number of members of the Parliament from one article and included them in another.

The Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) Parliamentary Majority has amended the Rules of Procedure to count the total number of members of parliament without the seven members of parliament who resigned to take over positions in the government.

Accordingly, it was decided to add (a), (b) and (v) to Article 49 of the Rules of Procedure of the House. According to the articles, the total number of members of Parliament shall be calculated on the basis of the total number of members of Parliament at that time.

However, the Attorney General's Office had already petitioned the Supreme Court to quash these three articles.

The Supreme Court then issued an interim order to suspend these articles.

The Supreme Court order was not followed by the Parliament. The General Committee also approved the deletion of the provisions requested to be repealed by the Attorney General's Office, and the addition of the provisions to Article 242.

Twenty-nine members voted in favor of the decision of the General Committee while eight members voted against it.

This is not the first time the MDP leadership has abused their power and ignored the rule of law. The events of February 7th, 2012, were a direct result of the actions of then President Mohamed Nasheed, who was the leader of the MDP at the time. He ordered the arrest of a sitting judge, which went against the constitution of the Maldives, resulting in a mutiny against him from the national armed forces.