Minivan News – Page 203 – Minivan News

President appoints Shamshul Falah to JSC

President Abdulla Yameen has appointed Shamshul Falah as the president’s representative at the Judicial Services Commission (JSC) today.

Shamshul Falah served as the Secretary of Legal Affairs at the President’s Office under former President Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan.

Falah’s appointment is the third new appointment to the JSC this month. President Yameen appointed Attorney General Mohamed Anil to the judicial oversight body earlier this week.

On November 10, former president Dr Mohamed Waheed administered the oath of office to opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) MP Ahmed Hamza who will act as the parliament’s representative.

The seat occupied by the President of the Civil Service Commission on the 10 member JSC remains vacant amidst a dispute between the Supreme Court and People’s Majlis regarding the dismissal of former CSC head Mohamed Fahmy Hassan.

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Maldives elections veered into the realm of farce: New York Times

At a certain point this fall, the presidential elections in the Maldives stopped looking like the hiccups of a young democracy and veered into the realm of farce, writes Ellen Barry for the New York Times.

Mohamed Nasheed was the leader after a first-round election back in September, but the country’s Supreme Court begged to differ. The court, which was allied with one of his rivals, voided the September election before it could reach a second round, citing irregularities in voter rolls.

The court scuttled another vote planned for October, ordering the police to surround the election commission. In November, after Mr. Nasheed had trounced his rivals again, the court derailed a second-round vote with another last-minute delay.

Something about it felt familiar. I had just arrived in South Asia after five years in the former Soviet Union, where I saw one leader after another dispensing with truly competitive politics.

Elections kept happening, but there was only a glaze of competition; for the most part, the opposition candidates were docile, handpicked characters, because no one else was allowed to run. On the rare occasions when actual rivals were able to take part, as in recent elections in Ukraine and Georgia, the candidates who lost found themselves in court or in prison. The experiment in democracy, born in the euphoria of the 1990s, seemed to be ending.

In South Asia, that experiment is much closer to its beginning.

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Will the new President’s ‘conciliatory mode’ last, asks the Eurasia Review

Soon after he took over, the first thing President Yameen did was to take a swipe at the losing candidate Mohamed Nasheed, by declaring that “People have proved that they do not want a puppet of foreign powers,” writes Dr S Chandrasekharan for the Eurasia Review.

Better sense prevailed and soon he quickly made some conciliatory gestures to make up for that indiscreet statement.

Though Nasheed lost, nearly fifty person of the electorate had voted for him and this cannot be ignored. The international community also stressed that the new government in view of the close contest, should engage the opposition in a conciliatory manner.

Some appointments have been disappointing. The selection of Umar Naseer, a loose canon as the Home Minister is one. This perhaps has been done more to quieten him and as part of the deal with the Jumhooree with whose cooperation Yameen has come to power. It may be recalled that Umar Naseer in losing his bid for becoming the party candidate for presidentship in the PPM had abused Yameen of having used the convicted and the drug smuggling network to get elected. He was out of the party for a while and now he says that he either wants to join the PPM or the Jumhooree again!

The appointment of the Foreign Minister is another disappointment. Yameen’s niece and Gayoom’s daughter Dhunya Maumoon has been elevated and reappointed as the foreign minister. In one of the first interviews he gave, Yameen said that his priority would be on the Maldives- India relations that had taken a downturn in the last two years. As a minister of state in Waheed’s government, Dhunya looked after the foreign relations and the relations with India deteriorated mainly because of her.

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No labourer permits for those who retain passports, warns immigration department

The immigration department has warned that permits allowing employers to bring expatriate workers into the country could be withheld if they are found to be forcefully retained.

Local media has reported the department as noting that the practice remains common, as does the practice of some employees demanding money before passports are released.

Such methods appeared on a list of grievances compiled by the Indian High Commission in Male’ early this year. Indian authorities said at the time that tightened restrictions over providing medical visas to Maldivians were a “signal” for the country’s government to address a number of concerns about the nation’s treatment of migrant workers.

The immigration department’s warning comes as the incoming government attempts to improve relations with the Indian government, with the Indian Prime Minister today extending an invitation to new President Abdulla Yameen.

Bangladesh recently lifted a ban on worker migration to the Maldives after a government delegation was sent to investigate allegations of fraudulent recruitment, forced labour and migrant unemployment.

The country had temporarily blocked its nationals from migrating to the Maldives in September – an action described by one key local employer as a response to decades of failure by Maldivian authorities to deal with “human trafficking” and labour management.

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Man dressed in niqab arrested for burglaries

A man in Hulhumale’ has been arrested for allegedly attempting a string of robberies whilst wearing a Niqab – the full face veil worn by some Muslim women.

Local media reported that the 40 year-old man was arrested for robbery and possession of pornography.

No further details of this case have as yet emerged.

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Turning the clock back: Frontline

“The political crisis in Maldives over the presidential run-off ends with the surprise victory of a close relative of Maumoon Abdul Gayoom and the shock defeat of Mohamed Nasheed,” writes R.K. Radhakrishnan for India’s Frontline magazine.

“Change, sometimes, seems like a closed loop. The more things appear to change, the more they remain the same. This is so very true in respect of Maldives, an archipelago nation with a population of over 300,000 people, which is normally in the news for climate change issues and its idyllic upmarket beaches.

On November 16, Maldivians queued up to elect a new President in a run-off round. The results shocked international observers. Five years after the country held its first multiparty presidential election, Maldivians chose to turn the clock back. They brought back to power a close relative of former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who ruled the country with an iron hand for about three decades.

Abdullah Yaameen Abdul Gayoom, the presidential candidate of the Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM), a party Gayoom founded after he returned to Maldives a few years ago, was elected to the top post, with an astonishing 51.39 per cent of the vote polled (111,203 votes). He defeated the former President and Amnesty International’s Prisoner of Conscience, Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldivian Democratic Party. Nasheed got 48.61 per cent of the votes (105,181 votes). The polling percentage, at 91.41 per cent, was unbelievably high. A total of 218,621 of the 239,165 eligible voters exercised their franchise.”

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Majlis approves US$11,122,700 loan for Fuvahmulah water and sewerage

The People’s Majlis has approved a loan worth US$11,122.,700 to establish a water and sewerage system on Fuvahmulah Island.

The Kuwait fund provided loan has a grace period of four years and is to be repaid over 24 years.

Fuvahmulah Island located in southern Maldives has a population of 11,140 people.

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Majlis to review removal of Penal Code Article 81

The People’s Majlis has narrowly voted to review a series of Penal Code amendments proposed by opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) including the removal of the Penal Code’s Article 81.

Former President Nasheed is currently being charged under Article 81 for the arrest of Criminal Court Chief Judge Abdulla Mohamed – an incident that precipitated Nasheed’s ouster in February 2012.

“It shall be an offense for any public servant by reason of the authority of office he is in to detain or arrest in a manner contrary to law. Person guilty of this offense shall be subjected to exile or imprisonment not exceeding 3 years or a fine not exceeding MVR 2,000,” reads the article.

MDP MP Imthiyaz ‘Inthi’ Fahmy’s proposal passed with 27 members voting for and 26 members voting against the proposal. The proposal will be reviewed by a parliamentary committee before it is sent to the Majlis floor for a final vote.

Other amendments also include the removal of Penal Code’s Article 75 and 87.

Article 75 concerns the making of false charges: “Whoever institutes a claim against another person with the intent to cause inconvenience, loss or injury to that person without lawful grounds shall be subjected to a fine not exceeding MVR 2000.”

Article 87 of the code relates to the failure to assist public servant in his duties, with offenders subject to exile, six months imprisonment, or a MVR500 fine.

The current penal code was written in 1968. Work on a new penal code started in 2008, but it is still at committee stage.

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