Thursday, May 28, 2009

Shahid elected Speaker


In an avoidably chaotic first meeting of the new People's Majlis, Keyodhoo member Abdullah Shahid has been elected Speaker. Ahmed Nazim was elected Deputy Speaker.

When the Majlis convened at 11 am today, it went into an avoidable debate allowed by the interim speaker Mohamed Hussein, following a point of order taken by Mariyaa Ahmed Didi saying that if the speaker uses his casting vote following a secret ballot, his vote will no longer be secret. Instead of going on with the agenda, which is to elect a Speaker and Deputy Speaker, Mohamed Hussein decided to ask for members' opinion on the hypothetical situation: what to do if there is a tie in the secret ballot? One clause of the Constitution says the speaker must not take part in a ballot. Another clause says the speaker must use his casting vote in case of a tie.

Interim Speaker Mohammed Hussein thought there was a contradiction between the two clauses. However, many members felt there was no such contradiction. This difference of opinion led to a volley of 'points of order,' which wasted more than one and half hours of the Majlis's valuable time. In the end it was decided to go ahead with the vote first and to deal with the issue later if it arose.

When the floor was opened for proposing names for the post of speaker, Ahmed Thasmeen Ali proposed the name of Abdullah Shahid and Abdullah Yaameen seconded it. Mariyaa Ahmed Didi proposed the name of Ibrahim Mohammed Solih and Reeko Moosa Manik seconded it. When the names were put to vote Abdullah Shahid won the election 42 to 33.

When the floor was opened for proposing names for the post of Deputy Speaker Mariyaa Ahmed Didi proposed the name of Ahmed Hamza and Moosa Manik seconded it. Ahmed Thasmeen proposed the name of Ahmed Nazim and Abdullah Yaameen seconded it. Gasim Ibrahim proposed the name of Mohamed Nasheed and Ahmed Shyam Mohamed seconded it. But Mohamed Nasheed withdrew his name. When the names were put to vote Ahmed Nazim won the election 41 to 33.

The way the vote went is a strong indication of the strength of the two major parties. It does not augur very well for the ruling MDP.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

"DRP members are less bound by ideology compared to MDP". Well Dr. Waheed! DRP members, finally, have proved you wrong in your calculation.

Anonymous said...

You have seen how the Parliament was hijacked for more than an hour by the rantings of this utterly shameless Maria Ahmed Didi on a point of irrelevance and this only prolonged the procedure.The ultimate outcome was not going to change in anyway.This is the true colour of some of these people.They think that they are in the majlis eating fat salaries to have unnecessary argument and waste the States and peoples money.They dont even for a second think of the important mission entrust on them by an eager public.To make better laws, to make the ruling government answerable, to uphold the democratic values of the country and to make laws to improve the living standards of the people.
These things sadly dont cross the minds of some of these people.They are only interested in revenge, personal vendetta,empty rhetoric and making shady deals within and outside the parliament.As long as the public repeatedly keep electing some of these people things will not improve for the people the way it is expected.

Anonymous said...

Sad to see how MDP failed so fast and already people are thinking DRP is better. But what to do? MDP only has activists (another name for disgruntled failures and people angry becasue of jail sentences.) There are no capable people.

Anonymous said...

By and large this majlis is better than before. it's good people like ADK Nshid, Afeef and jabir lost.

Anonymous said...

Surely Anni must have learnt some lesson from this defeat. 'Hiyy thiri kuran' is his home work assignment.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps the best option for the president is to hold a mid term election. It will save face. He can say he promised it before elections.

Anonymous said...

The Maldivian people are thoroughly fed-up of party politics and policians. They don't have to demonstrate how evil they are. It's there for everyone to see. Stop all this vendetta and dirty games now or face the consequences in the coming months.

Anonymous said...

It took him only 6 months to kill the hopes of the Maldivian people. It took him just 6 months to land Maldives in deep shit. Mr. President, you are a genius.

Anonymous said...

We must all support to keep MDP in power till democracy is strong. otherwise Maumoon will come back.

Anonymous said...

Most people who have posted here seem to think everythin must be perfect in 6 months. They were very happy when nothing was done in 30 years. Be reasonable.

Anonymous said...

To anonymous at 6:06 pm.
It is true that we have not seen anything done in these three months.Well a lot of promises were made and are being made so only time will tell but for those who make promises they should note that time is the single most crual thing you can ever face and it is passing fast.
Forget the promises and how to fulfill it.What about depositing givernment servants salary on time.
People are now fed up of the last 30 year talk and this has lost its importance to a great extent except for few die hard supporters of MDP.
Now progress to this country or any county for that matter will come depending on the available resources and if you say nothing was done in the last thirty years then think again.Some teenagers may not know this but there are thousands of people who have seen all what happened in the last 30 years.
We also heard that income from just one resort of the Maldives is enough to do many things like sewerage systems for some islands bot wake up ... even if this is the case do you think even President Nasheed himself is foolish enough to invest on these big and costly development projects in islands when we dont even know that people will infact settle down and go back there.
The cruel reality is that in any country certain selected islands like the capital city will be far ahead of others in terms of development and most of the citizens will not settle for the second best and come in hordes to where you have the best schools, colleges, shopping, airport, hospitals etc etc.....
This can only happen in places with large concentrations of human polulation.
When you look at the natural and human resources that we have do you seriously think that you can build a few mega cities in a span of 5 or even 15 years.Doubtful but then again time will only tell.

Anonymous said...

There were a total of 76 members elected. One was sitting as a speaker. Therefore 75 members voting, so how can it be a tie? I dont understand? But no member noticed this. Thats how stupid this Majlis is.

There was a time when DRP was in power in the government, and MDP or the opposition had only 10 members in the parliament vs 40 DRP members. But look at what MDP has achieved? Look at the constitution? So I have no doubt they can still do lots of things in the current situation.

Anonymous said...

To Anon 10:53pm:
It could go into a tie if there is one invalid vote. then there would be 74 valid votes. (This is not just speculation. it actually happened when vote was taken to elect deputy speaker.) With 74 valid votes it can go into a 37 to 37 tie.

Anonymous said...

Maumoon won 40% against Anni's 25% in the first round. DRP won more votes than MDP in the General Elections.Maumoon is nearly 80 years old. He cannot win the Presidency again. The biological factor. Or Time is no longer on his side. So, it is now time to bow out of politics and pass the torch to new people. Time was on his side before. When that was he ruled for 30 years.
So, how about it Mr former President. Make a graceful exit. Let DRP get on without you under new leadership.So that a new Leader could come out of your shadows and get the chance to get to know and be known. And please don't introduce your children as your heirs.

Anonymous said...

To anonymous 2.38 am:- When we think of DRP’s capability of governing the country after Gayoom is gone, let’s recall the following quotation. “Movements motivated by ecstatic adoration for their leader cannot run a state. Neither can revolutionary leaders.” -- Dr. 'Abd Al-Mun'im Sa'id, director of the Al-Ahram Center for Strategic Studies. So if we were to believe Sa’id, DRP cannot run Maldives, but neither can Anni.

Anonymous said...

Fool its just a saying.... we will make a it work... the public wants to see a fair and free governing body. we want to see the sinister thieves of the public money to get their right full punishment. In which world would such people be off hook as normal citizen. We have given our new president 5 years to achieve this we will wait till then...

Anonymous said...

To Anon 3.24am, wise man. After 5 years your new president will say he needs another 5 years. After 2 terms your no longer new president will be trying to amend the constitutional bar or on more than 2 terms.

Anonymous said...

Fool , again we will decide whether he goes with another five years or not, and now is definitely not like the past 30 years elections and inhumane arrests... Fooled again..