Eva Can Sit Through No-Confidence Motion Despite Court Case, Clarifies Parliament

Parliament issued a clarification, today, distinguishing Speaker Mohamed Nasheed’s no-confidence motion and the ongoing Supreme Court case, asserting that Deputy Speaker Eva Abdulla maintains the authority to preside over sittings despite the pending court case.

The correspondence emphasised that the MDP’s Supreme Court case specifically petitioned the court to determine the presiding authority in the event of the deputy speaker’s unavailability and to establish the necessity for the motion to proceed. 

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Additionally, the MDP sought to assert that the parliament cannot conduct other proceedings until the resolution of the no-confidence motion.

Parliament highlighted the distinction between Nasheed’s no-confidence motion and the ongoing Supreme Court case and urged Eva to preside over the no-confidence motion proceedings. According to the parliament’s regulations, in the case of a no-confidence motion against the speaker, the deputy speaker is mandated to preside. 

However, the regulations do not address the scenario where the deputy speaker is unavailable.

Originally scheduled for the previous week, Nasheed’s motion faced cancellation due to Eva’s reported illness, preventing the motion from progressing throughout the scheduled days, except for Tuesday, when Eva was unavailable. Subsequently, Today’s session was also canceled after Eva reported being unwell.