Maldives National Party (MNP) President and Dhangethi MP Mohamed Nazim has stated that he has signed on to bring about a no-confidence motion against the President.

Speaking during a Q&A program by MNP last night, Nazim noted that the President had no right to 'give up' a part of our maritime boundary in the dispute with Mauritius, adding that the power only lies within the parliament to make such decisions. He noted that this was the reason why he had signed to impeach the president.

Main opposition PPM/PNC, Speaker of Parliament Mohamed Nasheed's Fikuregge Dhirun and other opposition members had formed an alliance over the Chagos dispute. The alliance has so far submitted motions to impeach Attorney General Ibrahim Riffath and Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid.

The speaker of the Parliament has given a 14-day notice to AG Riffath, before the motion is tried on the parliament floor. The parliament committee has also decided to provide the AG with a 30 minute time frame to defend himself.

To impeach a minister, the parliament needs half of the votes of the total number of members. This requires 44 members out of the 87 total members.

With the resignation of 12 MDP members, the total number of MDP members in the parliament has now dropped to 56. The total number of opposition members is at 15, without the inclusion of members from parties that have decided to support the President at the upcoming election, and independent candidates.

With this, President Solih's government is expected to face further challenges within the parliament itself mainly fueled by the inclusion of 12 additional members in the opposition, putting them up to 27 total members.

The total number of members who work in the opposition could rise to as high as 32 members if independent candidates were to be counted along with Ali Azim who was recently dismissed from MDP.