Parliament Has Gone Five Days Without a Sitting, No Session Scheduled for Today

The parliament has gone five days without holding a sitting, with no session scheduled for today either.

The last parliamentary sitting took place on Wednesday last week. The Parliament Secretariat has not announced a reason for the interruption or confirmed when the next sitting will take place.

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Parliament normally holds sittings from Monday to Wednesday each week.

Opposition party the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) has previously raised concerns over the pace of parliamentary work. The party has also criticised the functioning of parliamentary committees, noting that MPs receive an MVR 20,000 committee allowance despite some meetings lasting less than 15 minutes.

Public criticism has similarly focused on committees being concluded within five or 10 minutes or cancelled when the scheduled time expires.

The irregular scheduling of parliamentary sittings and concerns over the volume of work carried out during the current parliamentary term have continued to draw public attention, particularly given the salaries and allowances paid to MPs from the state budget.