Male’, Maldives – Majority of the Parliament votes against the no confidence motion filed against Minister of Home Affairs, Imran Abdulla by the opposition coalition, Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) and People’s National Congress (PNC).
Speaker Nasheed announced that the Parliament will be going in favor of keeping Minister Imran in his position after 53 parliamentary members voted in support of the minister and only 11 voted to depose him from his position.
The parliamentary rules state that a motion of no confidence against a Minister requires at least 10 signatures from Members of Parliament, and that the Minister can be only deposed after the majority of 43 members of Parliament votes for deposition.
This motion was sent into the parliament by the nine parliament members of the opposition party along with the signatures of two independent members, MP of Thulusdhoo constituency Ibrahim Naseem and MP of Villimale’ constituency, Ahmed Husham.
The stance was taken after Minister Imran came under fire for implying that a woman being groped is a trivial matter when he said that it is something that can happen in a public place, without anyone even knowing, as he spoke on a radio program broadcasted by local radio channel ‘Dhivehi Raajjeyge Adu’.
In addition to this, the no confidence motion also noted that Minister Imran made false accusation regarding the abduction murder of journalist Ahmed Rilwan. This was regarding the documents that connected the opposition leader, Yameen to Rilwans disappearance.
During the parliament hearing, Minister Imran spoke in his defense and the Maldivian Democratic Party’s (MDP) Parliamentary Group (PG) talked in support of the Minister while the 11 opposition Parliament Members talked against him.
The leader of MDP’s Parliamentary Group, Central Henveiru MP Ali Azim previously said that it is most likely that the Minister Imran will not be deposed from his position as the incumbent party, MDP holds majority in Parliament. So it is impossible to pass the no confidence motion of a Minister without the support from MDP Parliamentarians.
