Only 4 amendments passed for Bill on benefits for ex president

Tuesday, October 13th, 2009

4lakka400In yesterday’s People’s Majlis session, out of over 80 amendments proposed to the Bill on Protection and Privileges to the former president, 42 amendments were put to vote and only 4 amendments were passed.

The Bill was introduced to the Majlis by VilliMaafannu constituency member Ahmed Nihaan Hussein Manik of Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) and around 87 amendments were proposed, most of which has come from members hailing from ruling Maldivian Democratic Party.

MDP members were against giving outrageously high amount of financial benefits to the former President and spoke about this in every session of the Majlis where this Bill was discussed. But it was the very same amendments that they vehemently argued against that have been passed by the Majlis.

In this regard, the amendment proposed by Thulhaadhoo constituency member Naazim Rasheed that a person who had completed one term of presidency of Maldives should receive a financial benefit of MFR 50,000 per month and a person who had completed more than one term should receive MRF 75,000 was passed in yesterday’s Majlis. This was passed with a vote of 52 in favor of it. 10 members voted against it and 11 members abstained from voting.

Other amendments that were passed include proposed giving the former president an amount of MRF 50,000 a month for housing allowance and MRF175,000 for an office to carry out community work.

The amendment for allocating MRF 50,000 a month for housing allowance was passed with majority support and was voted against by 30 members. The amendment for allocating MRF 175,000 to carry out community service was passed with 38 members voting in favor and 33 members voting against it.

The amendment that was proposed to change the margin title of article two from “the head of the state” to “heads of the state” was the only amendment that was proposed by MDP member of Majlis that got passed.

Just as previous sessions of the Majlis where this Bill was discussed and debated upon, MDP members spoke against the article nine of the Bill which allows for the creation of a parliamentary commission to investigate allegations before a former president is taken to court. MDP members proposed to scrap this article altogether but 38 members voted against it and 33 members voted in favor of it. The most embarrassing outcome of this particular article would be that Thimarafushi constituency member Mohamed Musthafa who spoke in favor of removing this article, voted against the removal of it. Musthafa said that he did it by mistake.

In what could be judged as a small victory to DRP and its Majlis members, in yesterday’s Majlis session, they sat calmly and spoke few words while the voting was in progress, MDP members took many point of orders to express their discontent of the way Speaker was carrying out the voting process. MDP members cautioned that by passing to not omit article nine of the Bill, Speaker was putting former president above the constitutional law of the Maldives.

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