After heated debate members endorsed President Nasheed’s cabinet at its 12 th sitting of the third sitting held on Wednesday afternoon.
After endorsing the government administrative structure proposed by president Nasheed on Wednesday morning sitting of the Majlis, members on engaged in lengthy debates on how to endorse the names proposed by President Nasheed for various cabinet positions during the afternoon sitting of the Majlis held Wednesday afternoon.
While some members proposed to elect a committee to scrutinise the names proposed for cabinet positions, other members proposed to endorse the names proposed to facilitate uninterrupted government operations.
Differences emerged when some members criticised some of the members included in Nasheed’s cabinet. Raa MP Shaheed Zaki, one of the Vice Leaders of Jumhoory Party (JP) was the most vocal of the critics. MP Shaheed criticised former members of Former President Gayoom’s cabinet Dr. Ahmed Shaheed and Dr. Ahmed Jameel very vocally. He reminded members that Dr. Shaheed while serving the previous government had caused a stir in Majlis when he spoke in a manner which affected the credibility and dignity of the Majlis. He further spoke of Shaheed’s and Jameel’s actions while they were in the previous government and severely criticised them.
Shaheed Zaki also pointed out that offering Tourism Minister portfolio to JP leader and presidential candidate Qasim Ibrahim’s running mate Ahmed Sawaad Ali is conflict of interest as Qasim himself is heavily involved in tourism sector. Zaki called on members to carefully scrutinise each and every member proposed to Nasheed’s cabinet before endorsing.
The other main point of conflict which led to lengthy arguments was on how to proceed with voting on the three proposals submitted. Speaker Mohamed Shihab initially decided to call for votes on the entire cabinet simultaneously, however members, by taking points of orders, objected saying that voting should be for each name separately. Other members pointed out that they rejected the proposal to send the names to a committee with the idea of calling for voting on the cabinet as a whole.
After series of points of orders, the Chair decided to call for votes on the cabinet as a whole. Out of the 3 proposals proposed to the floor, Majlis passed the proposal proposed by President’s appointee Ahmed Sameer and seconded by Laamu MP Moosa Manik. The proposal proposes to call for a vote to seek the approval of the Majlis instead of sending the names to a Majlis committee.
When the proposal was put to vote, 32 members out of 37 in attendance voted in favour; while no member voted against 3 members abstained.
The other two proposals were proposed by GA MP Abdulla Jabir and supported by AA member Hussain Mohamed and Male’ MP Ibrahim Ismail (Ibra) and supported by Addu MP Ahmed Aslam.
The sitting, attended by 38 Members was chaired by the Speaker of the People’s Majlis, Mohamed Shihab.
The People’s Majlis is expected to meet again on Monday, 17th November 2008.
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