Parliament of Maldives has decided to conduct its sittings online with a total of 92 participants.
The General Purpose Committee of the parliament passed the policy to conduct web conferences to continue parliament sittings amid COVID-19 pandemic. The policy states sessions will be participated by 92 individuals, including Secretary-General, Counsel General, Sergeant at Arms, and other respective administrative staff of the parliament in addition to the 87 parliamentarians.
The parliament states it has procured Microsoft Office 365 business licenses and created email addresses for relevant staff and parliamentarians in order for them to join the remotely run sessions. All participants have also been provided with passwords for their accounts.
The policy formulated by the General Purposes Committee states all participants will be shared the agenda via SMS, while the participants will be sent a reminder 15 minutes before each web conference session. Additionally, the secretariat will also notify all parliamentarians 5 minutes in advance before a session is started, and before a vote is cast in one of the online sessions. A message will also be sent if a session halts due to a lack of quorum.
The policy further dictates that the parliamentarians can request for their chances to speak in a debate via the chat function of the conference application. The voting will be done by questioning each individual parliamentarian participating in the sessions. The parliamentarians respond with a yes or a no once they are requested to vote, and in case a parliamentarian does not want to cast their vote, they respond with their decision not to vote.
The parliament further informed if the parliamentarians disobey the order of the Speaker of the parliament, measures will be taken under Clause 65 of the parliament regulations.
The parliament has decided to run the sittings online to support the efforts of the government to contain the spread of COVID-19 in Maldives. The decision was made in the sitting held on March 24.