Democrats submit bill to introduce recall votes

The opposition Democrats submitted legislature on Tuesday, designed to revise the Constitution to allow for a recall vote in response to petitions submitted by a specific percentage of the voting population of a constituency to remove their parliamentary representative.

The bill to amend Article 27 of the Constitution was submitted by Hassan Latheef, the president of the Democrats and parliamentary representative for West Henveiru constituency.

The bill adds an additional clause to Article 27 declaring circumstances where parliamentarians will lose their seats.

This includes:

• If a parliamentarian elected on a party ticket voluntarily leaves their party or joins another party
• If a parliamentarian elected as independent candidates joins a party
• If a parliamentarian elected on a party ticket is expelled from the party in accordance with the party’s standing orders during their term for violating a party whip
• If the majority of the voting population of a constituency decides to remove a parliamentarian elected on a party ticket who is expelled from the party for a reason other than violation of a party whip
• If the majority vote to remove their parliamentary representative in a recall election held after the relevant parliamentary committee decided to hold such an election following review of a petition signed and submitted to the Parliament by a specific percentage of the voting population of the constituency to remove their parliamentarian

The new bill comes after Democrats’ ally, the main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) submitted an anti-defection bill last month.