The entrance to People’s Majlis, the parliament chamber of the Maldives.
The Maldives’ parliament has scheduled question times for government ministers in its agendas after over a year.
The question time for the next parliament sitting on Tuesday has only the questioning of Kinbidhoo MP and Jumhoory Party member Abdulla Riyaz, and Minister of Environment and Energy Thoriq Ibrahim on the agenda.
The questions for MP Riyaz focus on the protection of areas of coastal erosion in Thaa atoll Vandhoo island. He submitted the issue to Parliament last February but it had not been put on the parliament’s agenda even as the first tenure of sittings ended for this year.
The parliament had not scheduled question times on any of its agendas since June 2016. However, parliamentary committees have occasionally summoned government ministers to meetings to discuss various bills and issues.
The lack of question time, which is included in Parliament regulations, has been one of the greatest complaints raised by opposition lawmakers. The opposition has highly censured Parliament Speaker Abdulla Maseeh, describing the act as an obstruction for lawmakers to hold the government accountable.
However, government aligned lawmakers have voiced starkly opposing opinions, declaring that members of the opposition seek to use question times to target ministers with pointless questions. Lawmakers of ruling Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) have previously claimed that it is a scheme by opposition lawmakers to waste time in Parliament and impede the works of ministers.