No lawmakers from the ruling coalition will defect to the opposition, but instead, more opposition lawmakers will join the ruling side, Progressive Party of Maldives’ (PPM) deputy leader and Fonadhoo MP Abdul Raheem Abdulla said Monday.
Speaking to the press at PPM’s office, Raheem said that though a few government lawmakers defected after the recent censure motion against the parliament speaker, no other MPs will switch sides.
“The lawmakers who support President Yameen are here to stay and you won’t see any of our MPs defecting anymore,” PPM’s deputy leader said.
PPM’s parliamentary chief Villi-Maafannu MP Ahmed Nihan Manik said that they already have a few opposition-aligned MPs who are ready to defect and join the government, and that they are currently working on taking them in through the right channels.
The government won the censure motion against the parliament’s speaker on March 27 with 48 votes against the motion. The required amount to oust the speaker was 42 votes.
Days before the historic censure motion, two pro-government parliamentarians who support the ousted PPM leader and former strongman Maumoon Abdul Gayoom declared that they will not be supporting the government in the motion.
Gayoom, who founded PPM, lost a bitter power struggle for the party's control with the its incumbent leader, president Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom after the civil court handed over party reins to the younger Gayoom.
The rift between the two brothers has split the party in two, which ultimately ended with the elder Gayoom publicly withdrawing his support for his brother.
The elder Gayoom has since been sacked from the ruling party along with his lawmaker son Faris Maumoon.
Since the new opposition coalition was formally announced, the government has continued to scrutinise the pro-government lawmakers that align with the elder Gayoom.
