Dry debate at Majlis for mid term budget of 2010

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

1decmaj3The debate session for mid term budget of 2010 submitted by the government had to be halted yesterday as members were not prepared to debate yesterday. Only three members spoke during the debate session, rest of the members who spoke, took point of notice to give their excuse for not participating in the debate.

This would be the first budget presented to a Majlis that was newly elected this year May.

The mid term budget of Mrf 11.9 billion, for the year 2010, was submitted to the People’s Majlis by Minister of Finance and Treasury Ali Hashim on 24 November.

The debate session began yesterday morning and the three members who participated in the debate include Nolhivaram constituency member Mohamed Nashid of Maldives Democratic Party (MDP), Hithadhoo South member Hassan Latheef of Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) and Maduvari constituency member Visam Ali of DRP.

Visam Ali was the last to speak and after her, Speaker Abdullah Shahid waited for three minutes to give opportunity for other members to participate in the debate but none proposed their names. But some members took point of notice to give their excuses. Some members said that they did not get enough time to prepare for the budget debate. Some others said that budget was submitted right before the Eid vacations and they could not look into the budget during the holidays. Some members said that they received the budget booklet only yesterday.

Answering member’s point of notices, Speaker Shahid said that budget debate was scheduled after giving considerable time for members.

Commenting on the fact that only three members participated in the budget debate, Hulhuhenveiru constituency member Moosa Manik, who is also the parliamentary group leader of ruling MDP said that opposition DRP members did not participate in the debate because this year’s budget was a good one and that there was no point to debate upon.

From the three members who participated in the debate, two were from DRP while one was from MDP.

DRP has issued a press release criticizing the government’s budget and even held a press conference to criticize it but these criticisms were not brought to Majlis floor yesterday.

Reader Comments

Post a comment

 characters available



The opinions expressed here are those of the individual authors and commenters and do not necessarily represent the views of Miadhu News Daily. We do not take responsibility for the opinions, facts, or claims presented by individual authors or commenters, and reserve the right to moderate or delete inappropriate comments.

Miadhu Opinion Poll
  • Sorry, there are no polls available at the moment.