Rifau: Presidential term can be raised to 50 years if PNC MPs want

Ruling PNC’s North Maafannu MP Abdulla Rifau, citing the ruling party’s lawmakers could raise the presidential term to 50 years if they wanted, stated the fact that they have not demonstrates their commitment against using their supermajority for undue advantages.

Lawmakers debated on the government-backed bill on public referendums sponsored by PNC’s parliamentary group leader, Inguraidhoo MP Ibrahim Falah during Wednesday’s parliamentary sitting.

During the debate on the bill, Rifau remarked that if PNC lawmakers wanted, they have the power to extend the presidential term and in this trajectory, raise the presidential term under the constitution to 15 or even 50 years.

Instead, Rifau said the lawmakers decided to empower the public with “true power”, and, for this purpose, introduce a public referendum when deciding on such issues.

This proves that the president is not taking undue advantage he has the opportunity to take, Rifau added.

“If the lawmakers here desired, they could change the [presidential] term to 50 years. The constitution allows this. Despite this, we are leaving this in the hands of the public. We have written this amendment to ensure no changes can be made to all articles under the second chapter of the constitution without word from the citizens. Is there anything happier than this?” he said.

Rifau, citing lawmakers are entrusted with the responsibility to empower citizens, said the incumbent members are doing just this as they have been instructed by President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu from the onset.

75 of the 93 lawmakers in the Parliament are from ruling PNC, which allows the party to easily amend the constitution; something which has been witnessed before.

While the incumbent Elections Commission Act does not allow referendums on such issues, the new bill would pave for this.

According to Falah, the purpose of the bill is to clearly define the conditions under which referendums can be held, as well as to specify the responsibilities of the relevant authorities, including the Elections Commission.

Public referendums can be held to determine the following under the bill.

• Issues concerning interests of the public
• National issues
• Amending fundamental rights and freedoms granted by the constitution
• Changes to the parliamentary term
• Changes to the presidential term
• How the president is elected
• Ratification of a bill by the president
• Changes to Maldives’ territory

The bill states a referendum should be held within a minimum of 45 days and a maximum of 90 days from the date it has been proposed.

The bill has been accepted by the Parliament with the votes of 64 lawmakers. No members voted against it.

As such, the bill has now been forwarded to the Independent Institutions Committee for review.