The parliament members elected during last month’s parliamentary elections have taken the oath of office.
At the ceremony held today at People’s Majlis, all 87 members of the parliament were present except MP-elect of Guraidhoo constituency, Ibrahim Riza. Reportedly, he will take the oath of office when he returns from his trip to Mecca to perform Umrah.
The members repeated the oath as Chief Justice, Dr Ahmed Abdulla Didi read the affirmation clause.
According to the constitution of Maldives, in the first session after a parliamentary election, the member with most consecutive terms is to administer the Majilis as the Speaker. In the case of multiple members with the same number of consecutive terms, the oldest member would get precedence.
Today’s session was spoken by the MP-elect of Meedhoo constituency, Mr Ahmed Siyam. The only other member except for Siyam, who was elected for the fourth consecutive term is the MDP Parliamentary Group leader and MP-elect of Hithadhoo constituency, Aslam. Siyam took precedence as he is older.
In the parliamentary election of 2019 MDP won 65 seats in the legislature. This was the first time since a democratic government was established in 2008 that a single party had been voted into power without the need for a coalition. It is also the first time a party or coalition had been elected with a two-thirds majority, which would enable the legislature to remove judges from the bench. If any other MPs choose to support the government, the MDP faction will reach a three-fourths majority, and will be able to pass amendments to the Maldivian constitution.
The other parties combined have a total of 22 seats. PPM with 5, JP with 5, Congress Party with 3, MDA with 2 and the rest occupied by independent members.
