Since assuming the chair of the President of Maldives, Mohammed Muizzu has been continuously messing with India.
Angered by the attitude of the Muizzu government, which is close to China and distanced from India, the opposition has now made preparations to remove him from power. The opposition party is bringing impeachment in Parliament to remove Mohammad Muizzu.
The opposition has prepared the complete mathematics for impeachment. The opposition is confident that Muizzu’s departure is almost certain because, under the current circumstances, the opposition seems to have sufficient numbers to remove Muizzu.
On the other hand, Muizzu, desperate to save his government, has approached the Supreme Court of Maldives.
The Attorney General, on behalf of the Muizzu government, has requested the Maldives Supreme Court to intervene in the matter over the recent amendment to the Standing Orders of Parliament, reports Maldives-based Sun Online.
The Supreme Court has been told by the government that in November last year, seven MPs had resigned from Parliament to take up top posts in the Maldives government led by Mohammed Muizzu. However, the Election Commission decided not to hold the by-election.
Taking advantage of this situation, the main opposition MDP, which has a majority in Parliament, amended the Standing Orders of Parliament so that seats do not remain vacant.
According to Sun Online report, a protest has been lodged from the ruling party regarding the determination of the total number of MPs.
Currently, the Maldivian Parliament requires 54 votes instead of 58 to impeach Maldivian President Mohammed Muizzu.
Opposition parties claim that they have the support of 56 MPs to remove Muizzu. Because as per the amendment in the Standing Orders, the total number of MPs is now 80 instead of 87.
Mathematics of impeachment in Maldives
Last week, the MDP and the opposition Democrats had announced an alliance to strengthen their party against the Muizzu government.
The MDP and the Democrats have a total of 56 MPs, including 43 MPs from the MDP and 13 MPs from the Democrats. Both parties have the power to impeach the President of Maldives if they wish.
On the other hand, Maldives Attorney General Ahmed Usham said on Tuesday that his office filed a case in the Supreme Court.
However, the court has not registered the case yet. On Monday, an MDP lawmaker said the party had gathered enough signatures to file an impeachment motion.
However, as per Sun Online report, it has not been submitted yet.
Meanwhile, the parties in the government of Maldives, Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) and People’s National Congress (PNC) have strongly criticized the opposition for the impeachment motion.
we have to kill before muizzu
On one hand, the opposition parties have made preparations to remove the Muizzu government, while the parties in alliance with the government, PPM and PNC, have said that they will not allow the impeachment to succeed under any circumstances. PNC leader Ahmed Salim said that the President will not allow any attempt to remove Muizzu from the post to succeed. They have to kill us all before they can even think about removing the President from office. This would not be possible during our lifetime.
The opposition is furious over the clash in Parliament
The real reason behind the impeachment is the entry of four new members in Muizzu’s cabinet. Last Sunday, differences had come to light in Parliament on the approval of four members of Muizzu’s cabinet. Due to which there was a fight between the MPs. After this incident, developments in Maldivian politics have changed rapidly. After the uproar in Parliament, the opposition has announced to bring impeachment against the Muizzu government.
It is noteworthy that on Monday, the Maldives Parliament had refused to approve three members of President Muizzu’s cabinet, Usham, Housing Minister Ali Haider Ahmed and Islamic Minister Mohammed Shaheem Ali Saeed. The opposition party, not MDP, wanted this. The development came after the MDP had rejected the approval of three ministers and Economy Minister Mohammad Sayeed a day earlier. However, Saeed was saved from voting. Within hours of the vote, Usham, Haider and Shaheem were appointed to the cabinet and were hurriedly sworn in before Justice Husnu Al Soud. The opposition had created a lot of ruckus on this.