Thursday
19th Dec 2024
Dhivehi Edition
President Nasheed. Photo: Majlis
Parliament Speaker former President Mohamed Nasheed is to present a motion to the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) Congress on holding a referendum on the system of governance in the country.
The motion is co-signed by Mohamed Shifaz, the Party’s Deputy Leader and Minister at President’s Office.
The motion stated that it was highly difficult for one party to claim majority in a national vote. Any Presidential hopeful, therefore, has to form a coalition. This, Nasheed said, diverts the candidate from his party’s philosophies, in a bid to cater to coalition demands. Nasheed added that this results in loss of public confidence.
Nasheed’s motion had put forth a constitutional amendment, that calls for Members of Parliament to elect a Prime Minister who would govern and a President who would oversee the state as a whole.
He also proposed that a President would be elected from a general election – the candidate who receives most of the votes would be elected. All the powers currently granted to the President would be transferred to the Prime Minister, while the President’s powers would be rewritten in the Constitution.
Nasheed also looked into the role of Parliament in this proposal. He argued to redefined the roles of MPs, as well as the creation of a “National List” based on the number of votes a Party receives in an election. He had proposed the number of MPs be capped at 87.
The motion also mandates that the Cabinet is drawn from the Parliament, fix the number of Supreme Court Justices at five, revise the composition of Judicial Service Commission (JSC), and revisions to decentralized system of governance.
He proposed that a public vote should be held on changing the governing system to be changed from a Presidential to a Parliamentarian system. If the public saw fit that a change was needed, then the changes he proposed ought to be put in place by amending the constitution.
MDP is to hold their Congress on the 19th of this month. The Congress will determine who will represent the Party in upcoming elections.