Parliamentary system’s features to be submitted tomorrow

Speaker Mohamed Nasheed says he plans on submitting recommended features for a parliamentary system to the Parliament on Monday.

In a press conference on Sunday, Nasheed said the Parliament was engaged in work related to the constitutional referendum on a system change. He said the Parliament will engage in discussions with other branches of the state, including Chief Justice Ahmed Muthasim Adnan and President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih.

Nasheed said he will submit two works related to the referendum on Monday, including work on an information paper regarding the parliamentary system.

“This paper will be voted for in the Parliament floor, and will aide in the referendum,” he said.

Nasheed said he will also submit the text that will be on the ballot paper.

He highlighted on some of the features of the parliamentary system that will be included in the information, including that the prime minister will be the head of government – elected from MPs, and that the president will be the head of state – elected by popular vote.

Key features:

The powers of the state and the powers of the government will be linked. The prime minister will run the government, the Parliament will draft legislature, and the courts will run the justice system.

Constituents can take a secret ballot to dismiss their MPs. They will be deemed to have lost confidence and dismissed if they are unable to secure 50 percent of the votes, they got to get elected.

MPs will lose their seat if they floor cross.

The prime minister and cabinet ministers must be accountable to the Parliament.

The chief justice and other Supreme Court justices will be appointed by the president. Judges to other courts will be appointed by the Judicial Service Commission. The chief justice and other Supreme Court justices will be dismissed by the Parliament in accordance with the constitution, and judges from other courts will be dismissed by the Parliament, once it’s recommended by the Judicial Service Commission.

The Parliament passed a resolution, calling for a constitutional referendum to decide on changing the system of governance in Maldives, from a presidential system to a parliamentary system, on Wednesday.

The resolution was submitted by Hulhudhoo MP Ilyas Labeeb, a member of the Democrats.

It originally called for a referendum to be held before November 30, but Ilyas later amended the resolution to change the deadline to October 30.

The resolution passed with the unanimous vote of 35 MPs.

The resolution has been shared with the Elections Commission (EC), which said it can begin preparations as soon as it receives the budget.