MDP must practice what it preaches on council transparency

The decisions that shape our daily lives are not made in the President’s Office. They are made in local councils.

From housing allocations to roads, sports grounds, parks and harbours; from pre-schools to primary healthcare; from birth registration to municipal affairs and countless everyday public services, local councils are the face of the state that most citizens encounter.

The Maldivian state cannot embody values that its local councils themselves do not practise. If we want a democratic Maldives, our councils must be democratic. If we envision a country governed with transparency, accountability and integrity, then local councils must operate according to those same principles.

One of the enduring legacies of the pre-2008 dictatorship is the culture of secrecy that still permeates public administration. The executive presidency and cabinet ministers operate with remarkably few statutory obligations to proactively disclose information, beyond the limited requirements imposed by the Right to Information Act. 

Predictably, successive governments have exploited this vacuum and the underlying attitude remains familiar: the public has no inherent right to know, only a right to whatever information those in power decide they should know.

The Local Government Act and the General Procedure Rules of Local Councils establish a comprehensive regime of transparency, accountability and good governance. The procedure rules, last amended in February, 2024, prescribe in unambiguous terms how councils must function in accordance with democratic principles while minimising opportunities for corruption.

Rule 72 is explicit: the chair of proceedings must vote on all council decisions. This important safeguard ensures island council presidents and city mayors cannot avoid taking a public position on contentious issues. Citizens have a right to know what their elected council heads support and oppose. 

Article 75 goes further. It requires every council resolution, order, decision and proceeding to be publicly disclosed. Any decision that is not disclosed in the prescribed manner is legally invalid. These disclosures must be published on the council’s official website and social media platforms.

Article 77 imposes additional safeguards. Minutes and decisions of official meetings must be approved and signed by members present, while the previous month’s minutes must be made public before the 10th day of the following month.

These are not optional administrative practices. They are statutory conditions for the legal validity of council proceedings and decisions. Citizens should not have to file Right to Information applications simply to obtain information that councils are legally obliged to publish.

Meanwhile, the annex of the General Rules of Local Councils specifies exactly how meeting minutes must be prepared, including every motion, its proposer and seconder, and precisely how each councillor voted — for or against.

I reviewed the websites and social media accounts of every city council and the five largest island councils. None had published decisions in accordance with these legal requirements. Most also do not broadcast their proceedings live.

As matters stand, there is no reliable public record showing how councillors voted or, in many instances, whether they voted at all.

In Malé, they have been raised repeatedly with Mayor Adam Azim through different forums, under different circumstances, and most comprehensively in a detailed letter written in 2025, when I represented Galolhu Uthuru in the previous council, before it became a women’s quota seat. I also penned a column on the issue in February, but no meaningful response or change followed.

Mayor Azim has since been elected to a second term and took his oath of office last month. More than 40 days have now elapsed. During that period, the council has held five weekly official sessions. Not a single disclosure has been made.

No matter the party, council presidents and secretary-generals are legally obliged to enforce these rules, restore transparency and ensure councils function as the law intends. Today, however, that responsibility rests overwhelmingly with the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP).

Following the local council elections, the MDP now holds 46 of the 52 seats across the country’s five city councils. It controls the mayoralties and commanding majorities in all five cities, home to more than half of the Maldivian population. Beyond the cities, the party also won virtually every major population centre. In practical terms, it is now responsible for over 60 percent of the country’s day-to-day local governance.

This is not only a rejection of President Mohamed Muizzu and his government, it is a governing mandate for the MDP. With that mandate comes the responsibility to set the national standard for democratic local government. If the MDP does not uphold these standards, it is difficult to expect anyone else to do so.

These expectations are well founded. Maldivians have always held the MDP to a higher standard as the party that led the democratic movement, culminating in the 2008 constitution. It championed decentralisation, the Right to Information Act and other landmark democratic reforms.

At a minimum, the MDP’s decentralisation committee will have to ensure three things.

First, councils must comply with the proactive disclosure obligations under the Right to Information Act.

Second, councils must disclose their decisions and proceedings in full compliance with Articles 75 and 77 of the General Procedure Rules.

Third, council proceedings should be broadcast live as a matter of routine, and weekly official proceedings opened to the public.

The most convincing demonstration of the MDP’s commitment to democratic governance and its strongest argument ahead of the 2028 elections will be its ability to govern effectively at the local level – with transparency, accountability and responsiveness. 

The party has already taken a step in the right direction by establishing the Inter-Local Council Project Development Office to provide MDP-led councils with technical, financial and general institutional support. The objective is clear: to help MDP councils succeed.

Democratic rhetoric is easy. Actually practising it is considerably harder. MDP, we are waiting.

Saif Fathih is a columnist at the Maldives Independent and a former member of the Malé City Council for Galolhu North. With his educational background in communications, international studies and public policy, he previously worked as a journalist, editor and public policy advisor, with roles including senior policy director at the ministry of national planning and editor of Ocean Weekly Magazine. Saif began his career as a radio producer and presenter at Minivan Radio, writer for Minivan Daily, and translator for the British High Commission and the European Union Mission to Sri Lanka and the Maldives. He is also the host of Ithuru Vaahaka, the Maldives Independent podcast.