Amendment submitted to reserve 30 percent of Majlis seats for youth

An amendment to the Constitution was introduced yesterday by an opposition MDP MP in Parliament, where 30 percent of Parliament seats are to be reserved for the youth.

The article submitted by South Galolhu constituency MP Meekail Ahmed Naseem to be included before Article 72 (C) of the Constitution states that when MPs are being elected, 30 percent of the total MPs elected for constituency seats are to be below the age of 35, specially reserved for such individuals.

The amendment to the Constitution introduced by Meekail also states that the procedure to determine Parliament seats for MPs below 35 years of age is to be described via an Act.

In Maldives, one is considered to be a youth if they are below 35 years old.

As Meekail had highlighted, while 93 constituencies are being represented in Parliament, there is only 11 percent of MPs who are below 35 years of age. However, Meekail also pointed out that Maldives' population sees the percentage of youth at 45 percent.

The reason why he introduced such an amendment is that even though the youth make up a large portion of the Maldivian population, their direct involvement in the decision of important matters is quite low. And so, the purpose of the amendment is to put the youth at the forefront of national decision making.

"Additionally, with the quickened pace of changes to our time, technology, communication resources, and with the youth being the most aware to the goings-on of the world, a system needs to be put into place where decisions of national importance can be handed over in stages to the youth who will lead the country in the future. This is one of the purposes of the submission of this bill," said Meekail.