Extraordinary Majlis session cancelled amid chaos, vandalism in chamber
22 Sep 2013, 2:04 PM
Zaheena Rasheed
An extraordinary meeting of the People’s Majlis was cancelled today after Speaker Abdulla Shahid’s microphone was vandalised during a Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM) and Jumhooree Party (JP)-led effort to disrupt parliamentary proceedings.
Twenty-nine MPs of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) had asked Shahid to schedule an extraordinary sitting claiming certain politicians were “destroying constitutional tenets and straying from the path of democracy”, as the JP seeks to annul the first round of September’s presidential polls in the Supreme Court.
Vilifushi MP Riyaz Rasheed and Gemanafushi MP Ilham Ahmed blew on whistles and vuvuzelas as PPM and JP members raised numerous points of order and shouted “rigged vote.”
Shahid took a short break at 10:00am to speak with Parliamentary Group leaders, but was unable to reconvene the session after a cable on his table microphone was cut.
The MDP – which placed first with 45.45 percent of the vote – has said it will table a no confidence motion against Attorney General Azima Shakoor after she intervened in support of the JP and change the composition of the Supreme Court bench.
The MDP and its recent ally the Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) control a majority in the Majlis with a combined strength of 39 of the 77 MPs.
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