Parliament Secretariat has revealed the first sitting of the 19th parliament cycle will be chaired by parliamentarian Ahmed Siyam Mohamed. The parliamentarians-elect will take their oath on May 28 at 0930 hours at parliament house.
Parliament Secretariat revealed Ahmed Siyam was chosen to chair the first sitting after the oath taking ceremony, as Siyam is the member who is eldest from the parliamentarians elected and who have served the parliament for the longest time consecutively.
The parliament shall elect Speaker and a Deputy Speaker by secret ballot at the first sitting after the general election and until a Speaker and a Deputy Speaker is elected the parliament shall be presided over by the consecutively longest serving member from among those present, according to Article 82 of Constitution. The constitution outlines if there are a number of members who have consecutively served the longest, then the parliament shall be presided over by the member most senior by age of those having served consecutively the longest.
The longest serving parliamentarians are Mohamed Aslam and Ahmed Siyam Mohamed. They were elected to parliament on 2004. Among the two, Ahmed Siyam is the eldest.
Looking at the ages of the parliamentarians elected for the 19th parliament, 43 is the average age of the parliamentarians. The result of the parliamentary election shows that mostly, the parliament will consist of new members. In this regard, from the elected 62 members which is 71.26% of the parliament are all newly elected members.