Malé, Maldives – Speaker of Maldivian Parliament and President of Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), Mohamed Nasheed has come under heavy criticism after questioning the legitimacy of the constituency representatives.
Speaking in todays morning session of MDP’s national congress being held in Male City, Speaker Nasheed accused some of the representatives from the local constituencies to not have been elected through the procedures defined in the party constitution.
The morning session got heated after Mohamed Shifaz, the Vice President of MDP questioned the number of constituency representatives who had won in the internal elections of the party during the debate on the amendment to disallow presidents and vice presidents of constituencies to participate in the congress.
Following Shifaz’s remarks, MP for Maradhoo constituency, Ibrahim Shareef challenged Shifaz’s accusation and told that any attempts to belittle the congressmen of the party would not be welcomed.
MP Shareef further added that some of the leadership members are attempting to nullify some motions being passed in the congress by showing that those were not in line with the party regulations.
After MP Shareef’s speech, Speaker Nasheed took to the stage and told that everyone attending the congress was aware that many constituencies had been formed against the party’s constitution.
With Speaker Nasheed’s comment the atmosphere heated up with backlash against the remarks about the constituencies following which Nasheed had to cut short his speech and sit down.
This comes while Speaker Nasheed has been receiving little support from his own party on his endeavour to make Maldives a Parliamentary system. He put forward a decree to the MDP congress for a constitutional referendum to change the political system of the Maldives from Presidential to Parliamentary which will be debated in todays afternoon session of the congress.
