Former President Mohamed Nasheed is attending the 17th Global Citizenship Conference in Dubai, while a petition was filed with the support of a majority of parliamentarians to remove him from the post of Speaker of the Parliament.

According to the agenda of the meeting, Nasheed will address the meeting as the Speaker of the Maldives Parliament. However, Nasheed’s departure for the conference was not announced on the parliament’s official website.

The news of Nasheed’s visits as speaker has been officially made public by the parliament office in the past. While there was no official confirmation of Nasheed’s official invitation to the conference, some media reports said Nasheed for himself requested for slot in the conference, to be a key note speaker. According to the Henley Global website, which organises the conference, anyone can ask to address the conference. The website also posted the e-mail address for the same.

While Nasheed is in Dubai to address the Global Citizenship Conference as speaker of the parliament, 48 lawmakers of MDP’s parliamentary group signed a petition to remove Nasheed from the post of speaker.

Based on the number of lawmakers who have signed the petition, it is certain that the majority of the lawmakers have the support to remove him from the parliament. According to parliamentary rules, the speaker and Deputy Speaker can be removed only by a majority of the members who participate in the vote.

Since the 19th Parliameny has 87 members, it needs only 44 votes to remove him. Many argue that Nasheed should not have the right to represent the parliament as speaker when the case has been brought to parliament with the support of a majority of lawmakers to remove him from office.

MDP has already filed a case in the Supreme Court against the lack of cooperation of Deputy Speaker Eva Abdulla to remove Nasheed from the chair. It is expected that the Supreme Court will pronounce its verdict soon.

The 7th Global Citizenship Conference is being held in Dubai, UAE from May 8-17.