Split the presidency, cap the Majlis: MDP's plan for a new constitution

Noting that the Maldivian Democratic Party was the first political party formed in the Maldives under the multi-party system, and is a responsible party that always works to govern for the people on the basis of the policies it formulates;

Recognising that, 18 years after the Constitution of the Republic of Maldives was drawn up in 2008, many citizens believe it now needs major changes, and that those changes can be achieved in their fullest form only through the work of this party, guided by the thought and assent of this Congress;

Recognising that including the necessary changes to the system of government among the policies this party has formulated and is implementing, and bringing those changes about, is essential to building a self-sufficient citizenry, one of the party's most important principles;

Recognising that the benefits these changes should bring the people can be guaranteed only by writing them into the Constitution;

Recognising that major changes are needed to the powers the Constitution of the Republic of Maldives grants the people, to the framework for running the state and government, to the legislature, to the justice system and to the concept of independent institutions;

Considering it vital to halt the ongoing seizure, by the government of President Dr Mohamed Muizzu, of the rights and freedoms that many Maldivians won through years of hard work, and to guarantee that no future president like President Dr Mohamed Muizzu can seize those rights either; to redraft in detail the articles of the Constitution, so that the people's most fundamental constitutional rights – in particular the right to freedom of expression, the right to freedom of assembly and the right to disseminate news and information – cannot be taken away; to make those articles detailed enough that no government of the day has room to interpret them as it pleases; and to spell out the Constitution as a whole in detail;

Fully recognising that, although the Constitution states that all the powers of the Maldivian state originate from the people and remain with the people, the extent to which the people are represented and their voice is directly heard has been reduced to an extreme degree, and that in deciding the affairs of the state, the people's representation and the direct seeking of their voice must increase many times over; to make it mandatory that any amendment whatsoever to the Constitution may be made only by a direct yes-or-no vote of the people, or by a special assembly made up of the People's Majlis, together with all elected councillors, whom are all elected to represent the people;

Recognising that people elected to the various offices of the state are elected in such a way that the people have no opportunity to remove them during their term, however much they may want to, and that it cannot be accepted as a democratic standard that the people cannot remove them even when they believe great harm is being done to the people and the state: to give the people the opportunity to remove any person elected to any office of the state during the term for which they were elected;

Considering that one of the greatest benefits the decentralised system has given the people is the opportunity to elect people close to them, who meet their needs in consultation with them, and that a citizen receives the real benefit of that opportunity only when they can elect the councillors of the council from which they obtain services: to make the amendments and do the work needed so that, instead of voting for candidates for the council of the constituency of their permanent address, as now, a person can vote for candidates for the council of the constituency where they live;

Considering that the People's Majlis is currently an assembly whose membership has been left to keep growing under the rule of one member for every 5,000 people, and that it is not right for the number of members to keep rising every five years without restraint: to end the increase in the number of members of the People's Majlis every five years; and to replace the current method, under which seats are won on the overall constituency result, grossly unfairly in relation to population and with no regard to the number of votes candidates receive, with a method under which members are elected in proportion to the total votes candidates receive in the constituency; considering that changes must be made to the system under which members are elected to the People's Majlis with the support of a very small number of citizens relative to the population: to provide that members of the People's Majlis be elected from the atolls and cities of the Maldives; to structure the Majlis so that its membership cannot exceed a fixed number; to reserve seats in the Majlis for women under a set method; and to carry out the studies needed to make the People's Majlis a two-chamber institution and further study of the idea of an upper house made up of people from various professions, and to do the work needed to bring about these changes;

Considering it important that certain powers now held by the People's Majlis alone – deciding certain matters of state, making certain amendments to the Constitution and appointing people to and removing them from certain state offices – should instead be exercised in a way that represents the people more broadly: to create a separate special assembly made up of the members of the People's Majlis and all elected councillors, who are the people's representatives; to give that assembly the powers and responsibilities described above; and to make it an assembly that, unlike the People's Majlis, does not meet frequently but convenes only when such work needs to be done, and for which no remuneration is set;

Considering that delivering justice to the people through fair courts has always been one of the most important principles this party advocates, and that it is essential to free the courts from the undue influence of the executive and the legislature and to enable judges to work independently: to change the current system, under which Supreme Court justices can be removed from office under the influence of the government and People's Majlis of the day, so that they can be removed only by decision of a direct public vote of the people; considering it important to eliminate the existing possibility that the Judicial Service Commission, too, can be brought under the control of the government and People's Majlis of the day, and to guarantee the commission's independence: to bring changes to the jurisdiction and the composition of the Judicial Service Commission;

Considering that, although the independent institutions created by the Constitution were envisaged by it as institutions that work freely and independently, separate from the powers of the state, many citizens have lost trust in their work; to give the independent institutions real independence, hold them fully accountable and win them the people's trust, by removing from the People's Majlis the responsibilities it currently holds in relation to those institutions and creating a separate special commission to hold them accountable; to make that commission one whose members are drawn from the general public; and to provide that its members can be removed only by a special assembly made up of the people's elected councillors and the members of the People's Majlis;

Recognising that changes must now be made because, as the Constitution is designed, the President is head of both the state and the government, which blurs the responsibilities of the two offices and allows the President to exercise power over the entire state to an extreme degree: to make the head of state and the head of government two separate offices, held by two different people, in order to change the framework for running the state and the government; to make the head of government a person elected by a general vote of the people and removable by the People's Majlis; to make the head of state a person appointed and removed by the special assembly described above; and to set out clearly in the Constitution the responsibilities of the two offices.

And to establish all the above changes as the policy of this party, and for the party to work to write them into the Constitution.

Fayyaz Ismail is a former economic development minister and chairman of the MDP. He is seeking the party's ticket for the 2028 presidential election.