New York/ The Hague, 14 August 2017

The global membership of Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA) reiterates its call dating 7 August 2017 to Maldivian authorities to respect the rights of every individual including parliamentarians, in accordance with national, as well as international, legal and democratic norms and obligations.

In July 2017, after 45 cross-party MPs from the United Opposition (MUO), in conjunction with those who had defected from the ruling party, filed a no-confidence motion against the Speaker of Parliament, Hon. Abdulla Maseeh, MP, said motion was deemed invalid because of a questionable anti-defection ruling from the Supreme Court that disqualified four ex-ruling party members who backed the impeachment.

The situation in the Maldives is escalating.  Judicial decisions have become arbitrary, using various legal tools to curtail the opposition’s freedom of speech, in particular when criticizing the judiciary’s lack of independence from the government’s policies. Six MPs to date have been stripped of their parliamentary seat. Twelve opposition legislators could be charged by the Prosecutor General’s office with criminally entering the People’s Majlis building on 24 July 2017, despite the directives of the military and police officers.

The Speaker of Parliament, who was impeached by a majority of legislators, has refused to convene a parliamentary session. On 1 August 2017, the People’s Majlis was cancelled due to a fire in one of the parliament’s bathrooms, which Opposition legislators claim was an excuse not to convene a parliamentary session and thus, prevent the Speaker’s impeachment from being enforced.

According to article 82 (d) of the Maldivian Constitution, the […] Speaker or the Deputy Speaker shall vacate his office: […] if the People’s Majlis at any time so resolve […].”

PGA Member, Hon. Ahmed Mahloof declared that:

President Yameen had a supermajority in Parliament, which he recently lost when 45 cross-party legislators submitted the no-confidence motion against the speaker; 10 of these MPs were from the Speaker’s own party. It is very clear that Speaker Maseeh does not have enough votes to survive as speaker. For this reason, the government is using every tactic to prevent the inclusion of the no-confidence vote on the parliament’s agenda and since then not a single session has taken place.

Former Deputy Speaker Hon. Ahmed Nazim was sentenced to 25 years; I was imprisoned for 11 months and released in June. Now they are seeking to bring charges to 20 more MPs and it is clear that they will not stop prosecuting and arresting the representatives of the people. The joint parliamentary group MPs are courageous enough to face all these politically motivated charges, we will not give up and we will win this fight to restore democracy and human rights in the Maldives. The road is going to be tough, but we shall prevail.

I seize the opportunity to express my sincere appreciation to PGA and the international community for the support.