Maldives to hold referendum on abolishing two-round system in presidential elections

President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu has announced plans to hold public referendums on several proposed changes to the electoral process, including abolishing the current two-round system in presidential elections, in favor of a preferential system.

The Maldives currently uses the single member plurality system for parliamentary and council elections, and the two-round or runoff system for presidential elections.

The president is elected by an absolute majority vote. If no candidate has a majority of the votes after the first round, then a runoff election takes place between the two candidates with the most votes in the first round.

No presidential candidate has won outright since the introduction of the multi-party system.

In the official Republic Day function on Sunday evening, President Muizzu said he wishes to see presidents elected in the first round, without needing to hold a second round.

He said that the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) is conducting research on the subject.

President Muizzu said that he will call for a referendum on the subject, and if the people are found to be in favor, he will push amendments through the Parliament to have the electoral process changed starting the next presidential election, which will be held in 2028.

President Muizzu said he believes the change will be cost effective.

The second change he proposed is to hold the presidential and the parliamentary elections conjointly.

President Muizzu noted that the presidential election and the parliamentary election are held mere months apart. He said that holding both elections conjointly will reduce the cost of holding two separate elections.

His third proposal is to revert the beginning of the presidential term back to November 11.

The second republic of the Maldives was established in 1968 after the country gained independence from the British Empire. The first president of the second republic, Ibrahim Nasir, took office on November 11, 1968.

This changed in 2013, when Supreme Court vacated the results of the first round of voting in that year’s presidential elections and called for fresh elections. This resulted in a delay in the elections process, and Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom, who won the 2013 elections, took office on November 17, 2013.

The Maldives has been counting the beginning of presidential terms from November 17 since then.

“But the Republic Day is November 11. But this is not something I can decide by myself. And as the law would have it, nor can the honorable members of the Parliament. We need to ask the people. We need to hold a public referendum to ask if the end of this current term can be changed to November 11, 2028. This is just a week earlier. I will ask the people if they are in favor of this,” he said.

All three changes to the electoral process require constitutional amendments, and therefore require public referendums.