Joint Opposition Parties have stated that the Parliament cannot carry out other work without first addressing the no confidence motion on Parliament Speaker Abdullah Maseeh.

Speaking at a press conference at Maafannu Kunooz on Wednesday, Spokesperson and Galolhu South Constituency MP Ahmed Mahloof said the current Parliament sessions were illegal.

‘We’ve submitted the no confidence vote on Maseeh with signatures from 45 MPs. The Parliament cannot hold sessions without first scheduling the motion for a vote,’ MP Mahloof said.

Referring to the fact that some of the arrested MPs have not been summoned to the sessions, MP Mahloof said that previously, MPs who were detained had been summoned to sessions. He added that special instructions do not have to be issued on either Parliament Speaker or Secretariat to ensure that those MPs are brought to the session. As such, he said that refusing to bring MP Faris Maumoon to sessions was a direct violation of Parliament laws and Constitution.

MP Mahloof further said the Elections Commission (EC) had no jurisdiction to declare that six MPs had lost their seats. Therefore, he said so long as Supreme Court had not made a decision regarding their seats, those MPs must be allowed to attend Parliament sessions.

MP Mahloof added that Parliament had been transformed to Army barracks, stressing that access was barred to MPs on both Tuesday and Wednesday.

He reflected on Wednesday’s vote, citing that Government was only able to scrape 28 votes from the 85 in total. MP Mahloof said that even if all opposition MPs are jailed, the Government will not be able to meet the required number of 43MPs.

The Parliamentarian also signaled that even those MPs allied with the Government now will switch allegiances.