Women elected to Parliament from PPM-PNC to be paid special allowance

President-elect Dr. Mohamed Muizzu has said that PPM-PNC are trying to give a special allowance to women MPs who contest and win on the tickets of the two parties.

Muizzu, who won the election as the opposition coalition's presidential candidate, tweeted today that he would like as many women as possible to participate and win in the upcoming parliamentary elections.

“Thus, I call on PPM-PNC to work to elect women to, at least, 20 percent of the seats in parliament,” Muizzu said.

"And, to encourage this, I will try to arrange for every female MP elected as a member of PPM-PNC to be given a special allowance by the party in addition to the salary and allowance received by the parliament.”

Muizzu, who was recently elected president of PNC, has said that his main goal is to win as many members as possible in next year's parliamentary elections and win a super majority in parliament. He said that he would like 60 out of the 93 Members of Parliament.

In addition, one of the things he wants most is to increase the number of women MPs and the best way is to have at least one-third of the MPs be women, he said.

The current 19th session of parliament has 87 members, of whom only four are women. This does not include any MP from PPM-PNC. 

Deputy Speaker Eva Abdulla is a member of The Democrats, while Addu Meedho MP Rozaina Adam, Hinnavaru MP Jeehan Mahmood and Thulhadhoo MP Hisaan Hussain are MDP MPs.

The 2019 parliamentary elections were held on April 7 of that year. Earlier, the Election Commission had said it was working to hold the parliamentary elections in April next year.