The Maldives parliament held its first virtual session on Monday. The archipelago becomes the first country to hold an online parliamentary session during the current COVID-19 pandemic.
Physical parliament sittings were suspended last week as a precautionary measure against the global COVID-19 pandemic. However, Speaker of the Parliament Mohamed Nasheed made the decision to resume the sessions online after discussion with parliamentary group leaders.
In this regard, the 23rd sitting of the current session was held online on Tuesday via Microsoft Office Teams. 92 participants attended the web-conference channel, including 87 members of the parliament, the Secretary General of the Parliament, the Counsellor General, Sergeant of Arms as well as two administrative staff.
The only item on the agenda of Monday's session was to discuss the economic package introduced by the government in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, under an emergency motion submitted by main-ruling MDP's PG leader Ali Azim.
