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Asia and Oceania
Maldives |
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Last reviewed: 27 October 2009 |
Country information
POLITICS
Maldives ratified their new constitution on 7 August 2008. Hailed as the reform constitution, it established the mechanisms for multiparty democracy in the Maldives. It allows for a Presidential system of governance, separation of powers, multiparty democracy, decentralised governance and a host of fundamental freedoms previously unprecedented in the Maldives. Unlike previous constitutions, the reform constitution enables all Sunni Maldivians to contest for the Presidency irrespective of their gender. This constitution was the culmination of a 4-year reform process initiated by the Maldives.Legislative authority is exercised by the People’s Majlis, consisting of 76 members. Each MP represents a constituency of a maximum of 5,000 people. The currently People’s Majlis was composed after the first multiparty parliamentary election was held in the country in May 2009.
President Mohamed Nasheed is the first democratically elected leader of the Maldives. A former political prisoner, President Nasheed has led the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) led coalition government since November 11, 2008. President Nasheed and the MDP came to power vowing the establishment of ‘Another Maldives’ with 5 key campaign pledges: establishment of a national transport system; reducing the cost of living; eradication of drugs; affordable housing, and affordable healthcare. He was preceded by President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom of the Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) who led the Maldives from 1978-2008.
Reform process:
After riots in Malé in September 2003, following the death of a prison inmate allegedly as a result of custodial brutality and calls for reform from opposition groups, President Gayoom set up a Human Rights Commission (see Human Rights), and identified five strategic areas of action. These were strengthening democratic institutions and processes of governance; placing emphasis on establishing an inclusive government; streamlining public service and increasing productivity; instituting modern management practices and strengthening the role of the family.
At the opening of the People's Majlis (Parliament) in February 2004, President Gayoom announced that he intended to convene a People’s Special Majlis (a constituent assembly) to draft amendments to the constitution aimed at further strengthening democracy. The Special Majlis, for which elections were held in May 2004, is made up of members elected directly, all members of the People's Majlis and the Cabinet, and presidential appointees.
In a speech made on 9, June 2004, President Gayoom proposed wide-ranging constitutional reforms to develop and strengthen democracy in the Maldives. These included creating the right to establish political parties, a greater separation of powers, establishing the office of Prime Minister, limiting the terms of President to two of five years each and allowing women to stand for the presidency. These ideas, together with suggestions sent in (at the President’s invitation) by the Maldivian public were to be debated by the Special Majlis.
Democratic Reform:
Following pro-reform demonstrations in Male' on 12 and 13 August 2004 (which ended in violence), the Maldivian authorities declared a state of emergency and arrested some 200 people including 10 members of the Special Majlis. Following allegations of mistreatment of detainees, representatives of the EU called on the Foreign Minister to express their concern.
The state of emergency was lifted on 10 October but some of the members of the Special Majlis remained in detention until the end of the year, when the Asian Tusnami struck the Maldives. President Gayoom pardoned those involved in the August demonstrations, dropping all charges. A parliamentary election was held on 22 January 2005. A significant number of pro-reform candidates were elected including some supporters of a self-exiled opposition party, the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP).
The Maldivian Democratic Party along with other developing political parties in the country officially registered in the Maldives after President Gayoom ratified the political parties act in June 2005. The reform process from 2004-2008 saw numerous opposition protests, delays in constitutional reform and in 2006 mediation by the British Commission in Colombo between the government and the main opposition, MDP in support for the promotion of peaceful political dialogue to resolve conflict. As part of the constitutional reform agenda a referendum was held in 2007 to decide on a system of governance, which resulted in the establishment of the Presidential system. The country’s first multiparty Presidential elections were held in October 2008 following the ratification of the reform constitution. 6 candidates contested in the election, where no candidate received more than 50% of the popular vote, leading to a second round run off between former President Gayoom and President Nasheed. President Nasheed won the second round with 54.25% of the vote.
HUMAN RIGHTS
Maldives has ratified all six of UN Human Rights Conventions: Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination, and the Convention Against Torture, to name a new few. A Human Rights Commission was established in December 2003, but the independence of the commission was questioned and the Act implementing the commission was amended and ratified again in 2006.Following pro-democracy demonstrations in 2003 and 2004, The 2004 Amnesty International and US State Department human rights reports highlighted concerns over freedom of expression and association in the Maldives, with particular respect to political freedoms, the treatment of prisoners and access to justice. Amnesty International highlighted the existence of a small number of prisoners of conscience. In October 2004 the Maldivian Government and the international Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) signed a memorandum granting the ICRC access to all persons arrested and detained in the Maldives. Amnesty International also secured government agreement to full and unrestricted access to detainees.
Since the development of the reform process and the transition of power in November 2008, there are no longer political prisoners in the Maldives. President Nasheed, a former Amnesty International Prisoner of Conscience has pledged to make the Maldives a safe haven for writers and freedom of expression. Although many fundamental freedoms are guaranteed by the constitution, many require the passing of subsequent laws to fully implement these freedoms. Examlpes include the media freedom bill and changing defamation from a criminal to a civil. They are soon to be debated by the parliament.
