WION Exclusive: Dramatic visuals emerged from Maldives parliament on Sunday (Jan 28) after the ruling alliance’s lawmakers disrupted parliamentary proceedings ahead of a key vote crucial for the functioning of President Muizzu’s government.
The visuals, exclusively accessed by WION, showed lawmakers engaged in a fierce altercation. The government’s lawmakers of the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) and President Mohamed Muizzu’s People’s National Congress (PNC) disrupted the proceeding over parliament and the speaker’s functioning.
Watch: Maldives Parliament witnesses physical altercation after Government MPs (PPM/PNC party) disrupt proceeding over Parliament & Speakers’ functioning. Key vote was to take place today over Parliamentary approval for the Muizzu cabinet.
Exclusive video from inside: pic.twitter.com/FwWj80uuyL
— Sidhant Sibal (@sidhant) January 28, 2024
Notably, former President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih’s Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) is in control of the parliament and the ruling PPM-PNC does not have a parliamentary majority.
Maldives parliament scuffle: Why session was extraordinary?
A special session was called in to get the approval of the parliament for the ministers in President Mohamed Muizzu’s cabinet.
Of the 22 names, the 18 named managed to get parliamentary approval to continue as cabinet ministers while four names were not approved. Consequently, the lawmakers from the ruling PPM-PNC alliance stopped the parliament’s functioning and a fierce altercation ensued.
Subsequently. the microphones installed in the parliament were taken away to prevent their potential use amid the physical altercation between the lawmakers.
