Incumbent president Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom remains "strong" despite a major lawmakers' revolt against him and would not surrender parliament control to the opposition, a top government lawmaker insisted Wednesday.
President Yameen has been struggling to regain the government control over the parliament after 10 government lawmakers backed an opposition led censure motion to unseat the parliament speaker.
After the now opposition coalition in March had filed a second motion to unseat speaker Abdulla Maseeh, the government had engineered an amendment to the parliament rules of procedure raising the number of lawmaker signatures required to file a censure motion against the speaker and his deputy from 15 to 42.
The opposition had filed the third censure motion against Maseeh with 45 lawmakers which included ten lawmakers from the ruling party.
Latest reports within the ruling party indicate that most lawmakers have become frustrated with recent government policies and there remains a real threat that more lawmakers would crossover to the opposition.
However, Nilandhoo MP Abdulla Khaleel insisted that president Yameen remains strong and expressed confidence that the government would be able to maintain its parliament majority.
"President remains strong. I would like to ask our supporters not to worry," the ruling Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) secretary general assured during a program on privately-run Sangu TV.
Khaleel also said the majority of the people remained with president Yameen.
