MALE, Nov. 1 (Xinhua) -- Parliament Speaker of the Maldives Abdulla Maseeh Mohamed on Thursday resigned hours before a no-confidence vote was to be taken against him, local media reported.
Maseeh was to face a no-confidence vote on the floor of the House on Thursday night after a motion, signed by 51 lawmakers, in the 85-member House was brought to the parliament floor last week.
Chief Government Lawmaker Ahmed Nihan Hussain Manik told reporters that Maseeh had stepped down on Thursday afternoon.
The no-confidence motion against the parliament speaker was initially filed in July 2017 with the signatures of 45 parliamentarians.
However, the motion failed when 13 lawmakers from the ruling Progressive Party of Maldives who signed the motion left the party and the Elections Commission decided that those parliamentarians had lost their parliamentarian seats.
Maseeh faced another no-confidence motion in March 2017 which was defeated after 13 opposition legislators were expelled from the chamber.
Maseeh is a member of the ruling Progressive Party of Maldives, led by incumbent President Abdulla Yameen.
He was elected speaker in May 2014 and since then has survived a number of impeachment motions under the Yameen administration, local media reports said.
Maldives held its presidential election on Sept. 23 which resulted in the defeat of Yameen and victory of Joint Opposition candidate Ibrahim Mohamed Solih.
According to results released by the Elections Commission, Solih had won the polls after securing 58.3 percent votes, defeating President Yameen.
President-elect Solih will be sworn in on Nov. 17.
