Case filed to revoke Thinadhoo's city status

A constitutional case has been filed in the High Court seeking to revoke the city status of Gaafu Dhaalu Thinadhoo, citing a population below the required threshold of 10,000.

Thinadhoo was granted city status during former President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih's administration during his presidential campaign.

At the time, the population was reported to be approximately 8,000, with about 5,000 people residing on the island.

Under the Decentralization of Administrative Areas Act, a population of at least 10,000 is a prerequisite for city status.

The petition was filed by lawyer and Deputy Minister of Climate Change, Environment, and Energy, Mohamed Raghib, who claimed that Thinadhoo's designation was based on fraudulent data.

Speaking to Mihaaru News, Raghib said that the council had submitted a falsified list of the population to meet the requirement.

“From my investigation, the list includes people who passed away years ago, duplicate entries with altered ID numbers, and repeated entries with different ID cards. It is an illegal list,” Raghib said.

According to Raghib, a request made under the Access to Information Act to the Department of National Registration (DNR) revealed Thinadhoo's current population to be around 7,000.

He further alleged that city status was granted based on the falsified data and called for an investigation into the actions of the Thinadhoo council and former President Solih for forgery of documents and submitting false information to a government authority and annul Thinadhoo's city status.

President Solih had previously ratified Thinadhoo's city status, stating that all criteria under the Decentralization Act had been met.

High Court is yet to decide on whether it will accept the case which was filed on Thursday.

There are currently five cities in the Maldives, Male', Addu, Fuvahmulah, Kulhudhuffushi, and Thinadhoo.