Additional reporting by Neil Merrett.
Five political parties remain registered in the Maldives following the ratification of the controversial Political Parties Bill by President Mohamed Waheed.
Vice President of Elections Commission (EC) Ahmed Fayaz told Minivan News today (March 12) that a total of 11 political parties had now been removed from its political party registry in accordance to the new bill.
Out of the 16 parties that had previously existed prior to the ratification of the bill, only the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM), Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP), Jumhoree Party (JP) and Adhaalath Party (AP) remain registered in the Maldives.
The Political Parties Bill, ratified today (March 12), states that parties who do not meet the required 10,000 members will no longer be recognised as such in the Maldives.
President Waheed’s own party, Gaumee Ihthihad Party (GIP) was one of the 11 parties dissolved following the bill’s ratification, despite the president’s claims that it had reached 10,000 members.
EC Vice President Fayaz said that whilst GIP and the Maldives Development Alliance (MDA) had both submitted enough forms to meet the 10,000 minimum, many of those forms were still pending and so could not be counted.
“There are two parties who have submitted close to, or over the 10,000 membership minimum, but just because the parties have 10,000 membership forms submitted, it does not mean they have 10,000 party members.
“We followed procedure in accordance to the [Political Parties] bill. Within that bill there is a clause that clearly states, that when a party that has less than 10,000 members it is to become null and void. The EC acted in accordance to the law,” Fayaz told Minivan News.
It had been previously reported that upon ratification of the bill, political parties with fewer than 10,000 members would have three months to reach the required amount or face dissolution.
When asked about the clause, Fayaz stated it only applied to registered parties in accordance to the bill, and that therefore if a party does not meet the 10,000 limit it cannot be classed as such and is therefore exempt from the three-month clause.
Government takes measures to “rectify” Political Parties Bill
Speaking to Minivan News, President’s Office Media Secretary Masood Imad said the government had decided to take measures to “rectify” the decision to dissolve all but five of the country’s political parties.
The dissolution of the parties is seen by the state as an infringement of people’s right to form political bodies, according to Masood.
“The constitution does give the right for every citizen to do this,” he added.
Masood contended that Attorney General (AG) Azima Shukoor had this afternoon sought to file motions with the country’s Supreme Court raising concerns with the decision to dissolve the parties following the ratification of the controversial Political Parties Bill by President Waheed earlier today.
However, at the time of press, he said he was not aware exactly of the nature of documentation submitted to the courts by the attorney general.
Addressing the impact of President Waheed’s own party being dissolved, Masood said the decision would not be a problem for the functioning of the present government.
However, he declined to comment on what implications a lack of party could have on President Waheed’s prospects for re-election.
“There maybe some issues there going forward, but you would need to speak with a spokesperson for the president’s party,” he said. “I would rather not comment on the matter.”
Local media reported that the AG’s Office had submitted both the Political Parties Act and the Privileges and Powers of Parliament Members Act to the Supreme Court today, stating that the bills contain a number of legal discrepancies.
At time of press, Attorney General Azima Shukoor and GIP party spokesperson Abbas Adil Riza were not responding to calls from Minivan News.
President Waheed’s Special Advisor and Leader of the government-aligned Dhivehi Qaumee Party (DQP), Dr Hassan Saeed, and MP Ahmed ‘Sun Travel’ Shiyam, Interim Leader of the recently formed Maldives Development Alliance (MDA), were also not returning calls today.
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It had been previously reported that upon ratification of the bill, political parties with fewer than 10,000 members would have three months to reach the required amount or face dissolution.
When asked about the clause, Fayaz stated it only applied to registered parties in accordance to the bill, and that therefore if a party does not meet the 10,000 limit it cannot be classed as such and is therefore exempt from the three-month clause.
What a joke. You guys at EC need to learn sets and subsets all over again. Start from Kindergarten just to be sure you don't miss out on anything else in the future.
Fayaz, you are a robotic and/ or programmed joke-less joker. If a party has more than ten thousand members why should that clause in the Bill should give those parties that have 10 thousand members an exemption and a 3-month opportunity to reach ten thousand members? Any right thinking person would know that the purpose of the bill is to give the opportunity to all those smaller parties to attain the magic ten thousand member number.
And the second funny joke: Fayaz says that while GIP and the Maldives Development Alliance (MDA) had both submitted enough forms to meet the 10,000 minimum, before the ratification of the bill, still the Commission would not accept that party as having ten thousand members. The reason is that many of those forms were still pending in the Commission and therefore, being in the process of counting. Hence, rather than accept the Commission's own inefficiency and weakness in processing the forms, it decided not to accept them.
If a party has submitted 10,000 membership forms to the Commission, it means the party has submitted 10 thousand forms to the Commission. The Commission does not have the right to declare that a party in that stage as null and void just because it could not count them. And, hence, without properly counting them, the Commission cannot say a party is null and void under the law.If a party has submitted the forms on time, it is a responsibility of the Commission to count the before time expires. Commission's disabilities are no legal ground to dissolve parties.
In cases where the law needed interpretation, the Commission had earlier gone to the Supreme Court. Not this time.Why? Is it because the Commission's budget has been so drastically cut, it now lacked the money to pay the legal fees that are needed to submit the case before the Supreme Court?
If the Commission has no money, then why has the Commission recently decided to establish offices in different atolls of the country? You are a Commission that conducts about less than three elections in any region of the Maldives within a span of 5 years. So why you need these offices when you could not even have the ability to get proper legal advice on small matters. Or is it a stunt to establish bachs on different islands of Maldives so your team members could go on official picnics? Fayaz, you are dreaming. Be realistic. Or quit.
No Political Parties.
Everyone Independent.
yeah whatever, but i think for a nation such small as the maldives, 5 or 6 parties is enough. as we can see each party is a different community. different thoughts, different ways and not to mention, different income.. if that devides into more parties, then our pple are more disposable dont u think?
The lonely politician.
@kaza on Wed, 13th Mar 2013 3:37 AM
"Any right thinking person would know that the purpose of the bill is to give the opportunity to all those smaller parties to attain the magic ten thousand member number."
Unless you happen to have read the bill passed by Parliament, then how would you know? What a "right thinking person" thinks is immaterial as it only matters what our honourable members decided. That's the law.
Maybe the bill says that if a REGISTERED party's numbers drop below the 10,000 threshold, they are given the 3 month window to address that or else face dissolution. Read carefully here. The definition of REGISTERED is as per the new regulations, i.e. those parties who already have 10,000 members.
This makes sense, since party numbers can fluctuate, but the regulation needs to have safeguards to ensure that the 10,000 number is not just a gimmick to get registered in the first place. Fayaz got it right; perhaps he didn't explain it very well to the lay person.
"Fayaz says that while GIP and the Maldives Development Alliance (MDA) had both submitted enough forms to meet the 10,000 minimum, before the ratification of the bill, still the Commission would not accept that party as having ten thousand members."
Once again, Fayaz has got it right. The Commission is under no obligation to ensure that a party has the required number before the bill was ratified. It is the responsibility of the parties to ensure that the Commission had enough time to verify their forms and register the party as having passed the mentioned limit, BEFORE the bill was ratified. In other words, the horse has already bolted. It's too late to close the stable door.
I'm glad that the officials of the EC are taking the right decisions. At least one independent body in this country seems to be in working order.
Regarding the question of whether these regulations infringes the Constitution, it should be noted that a number of countries around the world impose minimum membership thresholds on political parties. Russia recently set that to 50,000. Among Commonwealth countries, Australia, New Zealand and Canada also have minimum numbers, although much lower, presumably because these countries can afford to fund smaller political parties. Therefore, minimum membership for political parties is not a Constitutional question and it does not violate the Constitution of very large established democracies of the world.
But we have to remember that the Maldives is "unique". It has a "unique" democracy and currently a "unique regime" too.
I like the irony of the photo accompanying this article. The little old lonely chap with no friends. Well, that's what happens when you overthrow the elected government chosen by the people 🙂
He'll be even lonelier in the future when his current political "friends" disappear in short order.
The reduction of PP is good. However the most important thing that should come out of this is, the existing ones must strengthen and talk about country's future, growth, where we will be in 5 years, 25 years. Instead of jerking everyone around.
Who is this Azima lady, and why is she running amok. Is she forming a political party?
Sad times for democracy.The restrictions being placed upon forming parties is a clear attempt to keep control within a select few who already have managed to make their own syndicates in the guise of political parties. It is also an attempt to kill any hope for regional politics that might bring development to other areas in the country.Something which the beyfulhu clan cannot stand.
Adhaalath party is the party to be dissolved first. The party consists of bunch of rogues and corrupt fellas. The guys go and sleep around with their sister-in-laws (faharis) and get into business relationships with foreigners who come into contact with Islamic Ministry to pay Zakaath and so on so forth.
The whole purpose of the law was to remove dysfunctional parties that do not serve any purpose and is a financial burden. Wasn’t it obvious that these parties dissolved under new law did not have enough members until the bill was drafted and passed? If these have parties produced some member hip just to survive in as a political party, this does not give them the sprit and the purpose of this bill to remain as a political parties.
When can these fish brain use their brain in a purposeful way rather in selfish way? In my view adalth also should be removed, they must have done some juggleries to remain there. For them, cheating, killing, robbing, raping, in the name of Islam are always justified as good deeds.
It is ridiculous to have so many parties in a country the size of the Maldives.
Additionally the system for registering members is open to fraud, my wife found out she was listed as a member of the Adhaalath Party and she was fuming because she does not agree with any of their twisted views. She reported it to the EC and they ignored her, so how many more have this party added to their membership without our knowledge.
On another note we now have a president who is not in a recognised party, time to stand down and call an election.
Increase the required membership to 30,000 and pass a bill. MDP, PPM and DRP can pass the bill and let the small timers cry n complain.
@Hassan on Wed, 13th Mar 2013 10:08 AM
True. Adhaalath must be destroyed.
It would have been great if we had the constitution back in 10th century. We would have passed 'No other religion, other than Budha'.
How calm would the situation be then...