Parliament’s General Purpose Committee has decided to grant Attorney General Ibrahim Riffath 30 minutes to respond in the parliament to the no-confidence motion filed against him.

The decision was taken during a convening of the committee on Thursday.

The 30-minute response time was proposed by Kurendhoo MP Abdul Ghanee Abdul Hakeem, a lawmaker from the main ruling MDP. The proposal was seconded by Thoddoo MP Hassan Shiyan.

Subsequently, the proposal was approved by the unanimous consensus of all committee members in attendance.

The 30-minute response time falls within a two-hour timeframe and will be divided into three 10 minutes; that is 10 minutes during the beginning, 10 minutes in between and 10 minutes towards the end. The remaining 1.5 hours will be allocated for lawmakers for debate.

The law requires the parliament to serve cabinet ministers facing no-confidence motions a 14-day notice ahead of the debate. Parliament Speaker Mohamed Nasheed said the notice was served on last Tuesday.

The no-confidence motion was filed by an opposition alliance which comprises of the opposition PPM-PNC coalition, ‘Fikuregge Dhurin’, headed by MDP’s leader, Parliament Speaker Nasheed, Jumhoory Party and Maldives National Party – citing negligence in advocating for Maldives’ Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and compensation in huge amounts to third parties by the government in a manner that is detrimental to Maldivian citizens.

The no-confidence motion is unlikely to succeed as the majority of lawmakers are pro-government.

The opposition alliance is pursuing no-confidence motions against President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih and Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid.

ITLOS, on April 28th, concluded that the conflicting Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) between Mauritius and Maldives will be divided between the two using the equidistance formula as argued by Maldives in the case.

Thus, Maldives gains 47,232 square kilometers from the 95,563 square kilometers of maritime territory in dispute while Mauritius gains 45,331 square kilometers.

Opposition parties claim Maldives is entitled to the 95,563 square kilometers of maritime territory in dispute.