Parliament Members have no grounds to campaign for upcoming elections without attending sessions, former Deputy Speaker of Parliament Eva Abdulla has said.

Eva made the statement at a press conference by The Democrats to express concern over the lack of attendance in the Parliament and failure to hold sessions as per the regulations.

Eva said that the Parliament has the responsibility of holding the government accountable and it is imperative that all members attend sessions.

As such, not holding sessions to allow members to campaign for upcoming elections is concerning, Eva said.

“We have multiple bills and concerns to address at the Parliament, including housing issues, state debt, constitutional revisions, sovereign fund issues. If these works are not done at the Parliament, the government cannot work accordingly either,” Eva said.

She said that members are paid to do legislative work and to hold the government accountable.

She added that there are two months remaining until the current Parliament’s term ends and it is concerning that Parliament sessions are being cancelled.

Parliament Administration said that changes to the schedule to hold sessions every Monday, Tuesday and Wesnesday and convene emergency sessions as deemed necessary were brought after discussions with the political parties.

However, The Democrats’ PG leader and Medhu Henveiru MP Ali Azim said that he is unaware of the fact. He said that he has seen a letter sent to the Parliament by MDP and PNC requesting a hiatus to allow members to campaign for upcoming elections.

The parliament session scheduled for Tuesday was cancelled due to not meeting quorum.

The Democrats President and Henveiru Hulhangu MP Hassan Latheef said that all members of the party attended the session. However since that’s only 10 members, they could not meet the quorum.

MP Hassan Latheef had also submitted a motion to the parliament due to sessions not being held.