The now opposition party said it had moved to pass the current no-confidence motion against Speaker Shahid over allegations that he had been making decisions relating to significant parliamentary issues without discussing them with various political parties.

The party claimed that Shahid had been acting outside of his mandate by deciding to suspend certain parliament regulations, whilst opting to follow others that were to his personal benefit.  The MDP allege the speaker had been doing this without discussing his decisions among any political parties represented inside parliament.

From within the MDP Parliamentary Group, 27 members out of a total of 32 belonging to the group are said to have signed the no-confidence motion.  The party claimed that its members who did not sign the motion had been unavailable to do so at present.

Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM) MP Ahmed Mahloof could not be contacted at the time of going to press regarding his party’s response to the motion.

Speaker Shahid told Minivan News today that parliament had received the no-confidence motion, though he did not wish to elaborate further at the present time.

‘’I will issue a written statement tomorrow,’’ he said. ‘’I have decided not to say anything before that.’’

The MDP previously called for a no-confidence motion against the Speaker in March 2010, accusing him of siding with the then-opposition parties.

In January last year, there were widespread rumors that MDP, the People’s Alliance Party (PA) and the Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) were planning to forward a no-confidence motion against the speaker.

However, all the parties denied such a collaboration at the time and a no-confidence motion was not forwarded to the parliament.

DRP Parliamentary Group Leader and MP Dr Abdulla Mausoom did not respond to Minivan News at time of press.

Dr Mausoom has today told the local press that he will make sure the no-confidence motion against Speaker fails in parliament.

He also said there might be a chance that MDP has sided with some of the independent MPs in parliament to pass the no-confidence motion.