President announces plans to empower Councils

President Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik has said that the government has planned more work for next year, in cooperation with the Local Government Authority (LGA), to ensure further empowerment of Councils.

The President made this remark while speaking to the people of R. Meedhoo last night, as part of his current trip to Raa Atoll.

The President highlighted that the main aim of decentralisation is to empower islands, and facilitate authority to Councils to carry out their work.

He said that authority for Councils was withheld when several Island Council elections were won by parties other than the ruling party. Following this, instead of empowering the Councils, national offices was established – which resulted in not much progress being made in the process of decentralization of governance in the Maldives.

President Waheed acknowledged that since he assumed the post of President, he had not been able to assist with decentralisation issues to acceptable levels. He noted however that, as a first step, he abolished national offices and empowered Atoll Councils with the responsibilities of national offices.

He also noted that not sufficient progress has been made in handing over land to Councils.