Democrats seek to amend law to change parliament’s composition

The Democrats have filed a bill to amend the constitution in order to change the composition of the parliament.

The party’s presidential candidate, Hulhudhoo MP Ilyas Labeeb who gave a press briefing on Wednesday said the bill to amend the constitution was submitted by The Democrats in line with their policy on ‘a parliament representing the whole nation’.

One of the changes proposed in this regard is to elect members to represent atolls instead of electing members to represent small consistencies. It was also proposed to limit the number of parliament members to 76. These 76 members will be elected as follows;

• 55 members from the atolls
• 11 members from the national list of political parties
• Eight seats allocated to women
• Two seats allocated for persons with disabilities

The number of seats for each party from the members elected from the national list of parties will be subject to the number of votes received by the parties in the election. The female members will be elected after dividing the Maldives into four regions; thereby, two female members from each region.

Speaking at the press conference, Ilyas said the amendments are important to ensure the parliament does not expand further, which would effectively increase its expenses.

Ilyas also underscored the need to amend the law of elections in addition to the constitution to reflect the changes desired, which the party intends to do once these changes to the constitution are passed.