The parliament majority party Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) on Thursday was forced to seek extraordinary sittings after Speaker Mohamed Nasheed ignored repeated requests to extend the current session.
The parliament has been in deadlock for weeks after Nasheed and his deputy Eva Abdulla refused to chair sittings in the wake of no-confidence motions against the pair. The last two sittings had to be cancelled as the parliament standing order does not allow a substitute lawmaker to chair more than three consecutive sittings.
However, Nasheed backtracked on his decision to recuse himself which according to the former president was based on "principles and best practice" to call and chair the sitting on Thursday.
The long delayed reconstitution of the standing committees was the only item on Thursday's agenda, but only the debate was scheduled with vote put off for another sitting.
As soon as the debate opened, majority leader and North Hithadhoo MP Mohamed Aslam objected to the agenda, arguing that the reconstitution of the standing committees must be put to a vote after the two hour debate.
MDP parliamentary group leader had then proposed to extend the current session until the standing committees can be reconstituted.
During the debate several of his fellow party backed his motion for an extension. However, Nasheed ended the sitting after the debate, which means the parliament would go into recess until August 16.
The ruling party immediately filed a motion for extraordinary sittings, urging Speaker Nasheed to table the composition of standing committees, no-confidence motions against the Speaker and his Deputy along with revisions proposed to the standing order.
According to the standing order, Nasheed must now comply with the motion within 14 days.
Nasheed ends recusal
Nasheed during Thursday explained the U-turn on his recusal, stating that the "interests of the people" would trump his own.
"...the parliament remaining in deadlock would not be in the best interest of the people or the nation," Nasheed who quit the ruling MDP the day before said.
He also reiterated his claim that the government led by President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih had filed no-confidence motions against both the Speaker and Deputy Speaker to intentionally engineer a parliament deadlock.
The ruling party however, has continuously rejected the accusations insisting that Nasheed had created the impasse to block the vote of no-confidence.