Amendment submitted to eliminate incessant by-elections

An amendment has been submitted to the parliament on Monday which seeks to resolve the issue of incessant by-elections as a result of increased vacancy of council member seats.

The amendment to the Decentralization Act was submitted to the parliament by Isdhoo MP Ismail Shafeeu on behalf of the government. Kaashidhoo MP Muthasim Ibrahim proposed to include these amendments in the Local Council Elections Act.

The law currently mandates holding the by-election within 60 days of a local council seat becoming vacant.

On the contrary, the new amendment states Local Government Authority (LGA) must notify the Elections Commission (EC) within 14 days of the local council seat becoming vacant and that the by-election to elect a new member must be held within 183 days.

However, the election of a new member is not necessary if the days remaining in the electoral term of the vacant seat is one year or less.

Nevertheless, a new member must be election to the vacant seat within 60 days if the vacancy leads to a council not having enough n members to meet the legally required quorum to hold a meeting.

Any person elected to a council via by-election is elected for the duration of the remaining days of the term.

If the seat of the atoll council’s deputy president, island council’s deputy president and city council’s deputy president become vacant under any circumstances, a new deputy president must be elected for the respective post within 30 days. However, if the seat of the president is vacant at the time the seat of the deputy president becomes vacant, members must be elected for both seats within seven days.

The new amendment will come into effect upon ratification and publication in the government gazette.

EC has expressed concern on multiple occasions over the high expenses arising from elections being held so close to each other.

The electoral body is also faced with multiple by-elections every year due to the high number of resignations from members of local councils and women’s development committees for various reasons. A lot of such resignations pertain to switching electoral posts, for example from councilor to parliamentarian or the appointment to another political post, such as from a parliamentarian to a minister.

EC’s President Fuad Thaufeeq has previously cited merging the elections as a solution to this, such as merging the local council elections and the parliamentary elections.