The People's Majlis has received a bill by the government highlighting the need to implement a public voting system for national issues and topics of importance for Maldivian citizens.
The bill named the "Public Referendum Bill", which was submitted by Inguraidhoo MP Ibrahim Falah, will be discussed in today's People's Majlis meeting.
Along with the bill that's been submitted to Majlis, a few things are also on the docket for discussion, such as a bill to request the 17th November Presidential inauguration being changed to 11th November, a bill requesting the Presidential election and the Parliamentary election being held in tandem and the removal of the second round in future Presidential elections. These are amongst President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu's recommendations.
President Muizzu has brought these points up during last year's Republic Day meeting and wants to bring these points to the public for their vote, and that these changes will be put into effect after a public vote and public opinion has been taken under serious consideration, said the President.
In the Public Referendum Bill, the following voting topics are included:
1. Amendments to fundamental rights and freedoms guaranteed in the Constitution
3. Changes to the parliamentary term
4. Changes to the presidential term
6. Presidential election
7. Matters relating to the territory of Maldives
In the case that a bill of amendments to the Constitution passed by the parliament is sent back without ratification by the President, the parliament must decide to hold a public referendum.
If approved, the bill-turned-law would state that if the President sees fit that certain national issues need public opinion to move forward, a vote should take place. Such circumstances and the circumstances in which he is obliged to ask for a public vote shall be determined by a resolution signed by the President.
The bill states that in cases where the Majlis saw fit to hold a general vote and when the House was obliged to do so, it should be provided for by a resolution passed by a majority of the members present and voting.
The bill further states that more than one issue can be voted on when a resolution is passed by the Majlis and the President.
When a public vote is to be cast, alongside the resolution to do so, a document containing questions regarding the issue, reasons for conducting a public vote regarding the issue and the arguments being made in favor of the issue need to be highlighted. The document must be prepared with prior consultation from the Cabinet.
Details of importance to be included in the resolution:
- Complete and proper phrasing of the questions and issues being put forward for public opinion
- The reasoning behind public opinion being required for that specific issue
- Voting timeframe for the issue in question
The Elections Commission will be responsible for conducting the referendums. A complete and proper phrasing of the results needs to be made public by the Elections Commission within five working days of the issue being submitted.
A minimum of 45 days and a maximum of 90 days is the allowed time frame between the announcement of the public opinion vote and the actual start of the referendum as stated in the bill.
All individuals aged 18 and above are allowed to vote in a private ballot, with the official results being released 14 days after the voting takes place.
President Muizzu has previously stated that he advocates for the removal of the second round of the Presidential election and for the election of the President be done through a preferential voting system.
This voting system will have a priority list style of voting (with the first name being most preferred and so on as the list goes down) instead of the usual system of voting for just one candidate.
President Muizzu's opinion on the Presidential election is that the President should be chosen after just one round of voting. In line with this, the President stated last year November that the Attorney General's Office is looking into the process of implementing a preferential voting system.
The President further stated that the Presidential and Parliamentary elections should be held together because Maldives is such a sparsely populated country. This will also save costs he says, as currently the system of holding the elections two to three months from each other can get quite costly.
He goes on to say that garnering public opinion on issues such as this is necessary.
