The Opposition Maldivian Democratic Party is preparing an impeachment motion against the country’s President Mohamed Muizzu, local reports said on Monday.
The Maldivian Democratic Party has a majority in the island nation’s Parliament. The main Opposition party, led by former President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, has 43 members in the 80-seat People’s Majlis. Former President Mohamed Nasheed’s The Democrats party has 13 seats.
The impeachment motion needs to be passed with a two-thirds majority in the unicameral House. The two Opposition parties have 56 parliament members, more than the required number of 54.
The Muizzu-led alliance comprising the Progressive Party of Maldives and the People’s National Congress has 19 members.
The Maldivian Democratic Party, in partnership with The Democrats, had gathered enough signatures for the impeachment motion, an unidentified legislator from Solih’s party told Sun Mv on Monday.
The Opposition is yet to submit the motion in parliament, Sun Mv reported.
The development comes a day after a fight broke out in Parliament between pro-government legislators and Opposition MPs following differences over the approval of four members in Muizzu’s Cabinet.
Muizzu, who became the president in November, is widely seen as sympathetic to China’s interests in the country. India had closely watched the presidential election as the Maldives is of strategic importance to Delhi amid its geopolitical competition with China in the Indian Ocean region.
Earlier this month, Malé and New Delhi were involved in a diplomatic row pertaining to remarks by three ministers of the island nation about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s social media posts.
The social media posts had shown the prime minister snorkelling during his visit to Lakshadweep. Maldivian minister Maryam Shiuna had reacted to the picture calling Modi a “clown”. “The puppet of Israel, Mr Narendra diver with life jacket,” she had said in a social media post, which was subsequently deleted.
Following an uproar on social media by some Indians, Shiuna and two other ministers – Malsha Shareef and Mahzoom Majid – were suspended on January 7.
On January 13, Muizzu said that the Maldives may be a small country but that does not give anybody the licence to “bully” the island nation.
The Muizzu government has also asked India to withdraw its military personnel from the country by March 15. With 88 Indian soldiers in the Maldives, India is the only foreign power with a military presence in the archipelago.
On January 24, the Maldivian Democratic Party and The Democrats said in a joint statement that the Muizzu government’s “anti-India stance” could be detrimental to the country’s development in the long-term.
The statement came a day after Malé allowed a Chinese ship, equipped to conduct maritime research and surveys, to dock at a Maldivian port. The ship, believed to be a surveillance vessel, had been permitted to make a port call for replenishment. It will not carry out any research while it is in Maldivian waters, Malé had said.
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