Parliament endorses Speaker’s decision on suspended NFP MPs

Parliament today endorsed the decision of the Speaker to suspend the National Federation Party and its members from all parliament sittings and committees for the duration of the suspension of the NFP as a political party.

This was done after an urgent motion brought in by Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum.

Sayed-Khaiyum stated that the suspended NFP’s members came into parliament based on the constitutional provision which clearly states that the parties that have more than five percent of the votes in the election are eligible to have seats in parliament.

He says based on this, the three MPs cannot be in parliament until the party’s suspension is lifted.

Opposition MP Niko Nawaikula opposed the motion and said that no vote should be taken on the Speaker’s decision as the suspended parliamentarians were not in the house.

Health Minister Jone Usamate says they are only endorsing the Speaker’s decision based on a party’s right to be in parliament.

Opposition Leader Ro Teimumu Kepa called on the Speaker to get legal advice from another lawyer.

She also raised concern about the urgent motion being moved by the government side.  

Opposition MP Semesa Karavaki also says that he hopes the legal advice was not taken from the Solicitor General’s Office

In reply, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says the opposition only says there is democracy when it works in their favour.

He also says that the Speakers in the past had always taken legal advice from the Solicitor General’s Office, and Karavaki is fully aware of this.

29 parliamentarians approved the motion, 14 opposed it while 7 MPs did not vote on the motion.