Case filed with Supreme Court contesting Sinan’s Parliament seat over decreed debt

A case has been lodged with the Supreme Court challenging the legitimacy of the parliamentary seat of North Hithadhoo MP Mohamed Sinan claiming failure to honor a ruling made by a magistrate court last year ordering him to settle an outstanding debt.

The ruling in question was made by the Hithadhoo Magistrate Court after the ruling People’s National Congress (PNC) lawmaker and two of his co-applicants – Ahmed Waheed and Mohamed Saleem – were sued by the Maldives Islamic Bank (MIB) for failure to repay an MVR 3.8 million loan they took from the bank.

The MIB filed the lawsuit against the trio from Hithadhoo on July 21, 2024, and won the case nearly three months later on October 14, 2024.

Sinan and his partners were ordered by the court to settle MVR 2.5 million in outstanding loan payments and fines in six months.

But a private citizen filed a case with the Supreme Court on Thursday alleging that Sinan and his partners failed to repay the debt as ordered by the court.

In the court filing, the petitioner cited Article 73 (c) of the Constitution, which states that “a person shall be disqualified from election as a member of the People’s Majlis, or a member of the People’s Majlis immediately becomes disqualified, if they have a decreed debt which is not being paid as provided in the judgement.”

He asked that the court to establish that Sinan has not paid his debt as decreed and has therefore lost his parliamentary seat.

Sinan won the North Hithadhoo seat in parliamentary elections on April 21, 2024 after beating Mohamed Aslam – a politician from the main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) who had held the seat for 20 years.

The elections had also seen the PNC – fresh from its 2023 presidential election victory – gain a supermajority of seats in the Parliament with 75 out of 93 seats.

The potential loss of Sinan’s seat will therefore have little effect on the PNC’s power in the legislative assembly.