By P.K.Balachandran
Colombo, October 5: Maldivian politicians across the board have given up the plan to change the constitution of the country from the Presidential to the parliamentary system.
The earlier parliamentary resolution to hold a referendum on the issue on October 30 has been given up. President-elect Dr.Mohamed Muizzu will not be able to function as a full-fledged Executive President will all powers. If the referendum had green lighted the parliamentary system, he would have been reduced to a ceremonial President, a constitutional figurehead, with only some residual powers.
Now that the threat of a changeover has gone, Dr.Muizzu, who is a technocrat with a civil engineering doctorate under his belt, can concentrate on developing the Maldivian economy, especially, the infrastructure projects, many of them funded by India.
Earlier, Parliament speaker Mohamed Nasheed said that all efforts to change the Presidential system to a parliamentary system has ceased “for now” in favour of giving a chance to President-elect Dr. Mohamed Muizzu to govern as the next President.
Nasheed, who met with Dr. Muizzu on Tuesday, expressed his party, The Democrats’, support to Dr.Muizzu. “We have decided not to proceed with the referendum right now,” Nasheed said.
Nasheed has been campaigning for a change to the parliamentary system since 2007. A referendum was held in 2007, which was won by the Presidential system getting 63% of the votes.
But Nasheed would not give up, though he became a President with Executive power himself. In the run-up to the 2018 Presidential poll, which he could not contest as he was serving a jail term, Nasheed offered to support Ibrahim Solih on the condition that Solih hold a referendum on a change over mid-way during his five year term. But Solih broke the deal and did not hold the referendum.
Because of this and other grievances against Solih, Nasheed broke away from Solih and the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) and formed his own party called the Democrats. The Democrats fought the first round of the Presidential election on September 9, 2023. But its candidate got only about 7% of the votes.
In the meanwhile, as parliament Speaker Nasheed got a resolution calling for a referendum on a constitutional change passed. October 30 was the date fixed for the referendum. President Solih agreed as he wanted Nasheed’s support in the election. Muizzu, the candidate of the Peoples’ National Congress-Progressive Party of the Maldives coalition, did not campaign against though it stood for a strong executive.
But with Muizzu’s victory in September 30 run off, the fate of the referendum and the change over demand was sealed. President-elect Muizzu told Nasheed that he would think about the change over in due course “when the time is ripe.”
Nasheed saw the writing on the wall and decided not to press for it.
The majority of MDP national council members expressed their opposition to the parliamentary system and had strongly criticised Nasheed and the Democrats. .
At the council meeting, MDP Chairperson and minister of economic development submitted a resolution through the party’s secretariat. The resolution said that the party will not endorse a parliamentary system if and when a referendum for a governance system election is called.
All 90 members of the national council voted in favour of the resolution.
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