MP Mohammed Nasheed of Kulhudhuhfushi constituency said that the Elections Commission can decide on the status of a parliament member’s seat after analyzing each case individually.
He made this in a blog post made on his blog after the Elections Commission decided that 6 parliament members lost their seat based on the recent Supreme Court decision on floor crossing of parliament members.
He said that the parliament consists of members who got elected on a party ticket, those who got elected on one party’s ticket and then crossed floors, those who got elected independently and remains that way, and then those who got elected independently and joined a party, and then those who got elected through a party but are now independent members.
Hence, Nasheed said that the EC should considered three things when making decisions. He said that since the Supreme Court decision is based on the general election and hence an MP would lose the seat if the MP leaves the party which the MP got elected from.
Nasheed said that, the Supreme Court verdict does not talk about parliament members who got elected to the parliament as independent members. In addition, he said that the verdict will be applied to parliament members who cross floor after the verdict was released and it will not apply on people who crossed floor before that.
Nasheed said that the EC can decide on the status of a parliament member’s seat after taking everything into account and there should not be any doubts. He said that it is an important responsibility to decide that a parliament seat has become vacant.
Nasheed also said that the EC’s decision was made without referring to the Supreme Court verdict very well.
EC can decide on the status of an MPs seat after individually analyzing each case : MP Nasheed
