Comment: Balancing political myth and poll realities

It also adds fuel to the off-again/on-again debate on the existing presidential form of government as, under the Westminster parliamentary scheme, there cannot be more ministers than MPs, which there are now. The situation is not going to change, even with the addition of eight more MPs at the end of the 22 March parliamentary polls.

Yet, the numbers also speak for the reality of ‘coalition politics’ that the Maldivian psyche has come to acknowledge – and, in a way, accept. Whether or not it will find continued acceptance will be influenced by the conduct of the coalescing partners. Independent of the players involved, for the concept to succeed, the present-day players have the arduous task of ensuring that theirs is ‘collective governance’ and not ‘collective non-governance’ under mutual threat and political blackmail.

The concept of ‘coalition politics’ was overlooked at the inception of multi-party democracy in 2008. Whatever the defence, former President Mohamed ‘Anni’ Nasheed and his Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) paid a heavy price for wantonly overlooking this reality. Five years later, ‘coalition politics’ is becoming institutionalised, going beyond the half-hearted ministry-making of 2008, now extending to seat-sharing for the local council polls (17 January) before the upcoming parliamentary elections.