The Parliament of the Maldives has concluded the extraordinary sitting without changing the composition of the standing committees.
The extraordinary sitting was held on July 3 after the Parliamentary Group (PG) of the main ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) submitted a motion to hold the sitting to complete all important pending works. The agenda for the sitting included the re-formation of the standing committees after changes were made to the register following the resignation of 12 members from MDP.
Presiding over the sitting, Parliamentarian Ibrahim Afeef said that the report on re-forming the committees needs to be amended as more members have resigned from their representative parties. As such, Speaker of Parliament Mohamed Nasheed and Parliamentarian Ahmed Rasheed resigned from MDP on June 21. He said that another extraordinary sitting will be held after a new report is sent to the parliamentarians.
MDP has expressed concern over the Parliament going to recess before deliberating on important matters such as re-forming the committees. The Parliament decided to re-form the committees after changes were made to the register following the resignation of 12 members from MDP. The Parliament has since been in a deadlock with crucial matters such as no-confidence motions against the speaker and deputy speaker being stalled. These motions require the General Purpose Committee to assign time for debates.