Ruling coalition lawmakers on Wednesday came out in support of the government move to ask the Supreme Court to disqualify MPs who defect or violate party whip-lines.
The embattled government turned to the country's top court in a last ditch attempt to arrest the slide amid fresh political strife in the archipelago.
Anil who submitted the case argued that lawmakers who get elected on political party tickets make a promise to the people to uphold the belief, ideologies and policies of a particular political party.
So lawmakers do not have the right to switch parties or go against the party he or she represents which would be a violation of the rights of his or her voters, the AG argued.
The state has asked the country's top court to disqualify MPs elected on a particular party's ticket if he or she goes against the party's ideologies, quitting the party and or switching to another political party.
As the AG was filing the constitutional case, several MPs scrambled to quit the ruling party, taking the tally of lawmakers to leave the embattled ruling party to 10 decimating the once mighty ruling coalition as the parliament minority.
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.
For the first time since the censure motion was filed, the ruling coalition parliamentary group held a joint press conference where Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) deputy leader and Fonadhoo MP Abdul Raheem Abdulla insisted that the party's motto has always been "nation first."
Raheem said the lawmakers who had switched to PPM after getting elected on another party's ticket were unfazed by the fear of losing their seats if the top court rules in favour of the government.
"Even they [MPs who had switched to PPM after getting elected on another party's ticket] agree that lawmakers who defect must lose their seats. So there's nothing more to say. They switched parties because it was possible then. But now they are ready to obey the court ruling in order to save this country," Raheem stressed.
Chief government lawmaker Ahmed Nihan Hussain Manik accused the main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) of introducing "MPs for sale" to the Maldives. He added that if lawmakers could be bought off, it would destroy the constitution and the hopes of the people.
Supreme Court is yet to decide on the constitutional case, but the opposition has slammed the government labeling it as an attempt to dissolve the parliament.
