MP Azim proposes reserved seat quota for women MPs, cap on MP total

The Democrats MP Ali Azim has submitted an amendment to the Constitution seeking to cap the total number of parliamentarians and to established a reserved seat quota for women parliamentarians.

The Henveiru Central MP's submission is a proposed amendment to Article 71 of the Constitution.

Article 71 of the Constitution concerns determination of the composition of the parliament and states membership shall be determined in such a way that two members are elected for the first five thousand residents registered for each administrative division or two members for administrative divisions with less than five thousand residents; and where the residents registered to an administrative division exceed five thousand residents, one additional member is elected for each group of five thousand residents in excess of the first five thousand.

Due to this stipulation in the Constitution, the number of parliamentarians continue to rise with each new term of parliament. While the current parliament has a total of 87 members, the upcoming parliamentary elections are being run to elect members in 93 constituencies.

Proposed amendments

- One member to be elected for administrative divisions with populations between 6000 and 12,000

- Two members to be elected for administrative divisions with populations between 12,000 and 18,000

- Three members to be elected for administrative divisions with populations between 18,000 and 24,000

- Four members to be elected for administrative divisions with populations between 24,000 and 36,000

- Five members to be elected for administrative divisions with populations over 36,000

Furthermore, an addition of a clause to Article 72 is proposed. In this, it is stipulated that 1 out of every 10 constituencies that political parties are presenting candidates for must be allocated for a female candidate.

A similar amendment was previously submitted by Democrats MP Ilyas Labeeb. However, Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), which holds parliament majority, did not support the amendment at the time, causing it to be rejected.

Recently, MDP and The Democrats have announced that they will be cooperating in parliamentary work, which raises the chances of this amendment being accepted for parliament consideration this time around.