The trial of the constitutional case submitted to the Supreme Court to stop the public referendum, which was decided to be held on whether to conduct the Presidential Election and the Parliamentary Election on the same day, is prepared to begin tomorrow, March 26th.
The constitutional case scheduled to start in the Supreme Court is the one submitted by lawyer Aik Ahmed Easa and lawyer Ibrahim Shiyam, who are part of the MDP legal team. The hearing for that case is scheduled to be held tomorrow morning.
The case is being presided over in the Supreme Court by Chief Justice Abdul Ghanee Mohamed, Judge Ali Rasheed Hussain, Judge Dr. Mohamed Ibrahim, Judge Hussain Shaheed, and additionally, Judge Abdulla Hameed. The bench is chaired by the Chief Justice. Lawyer Aik and Shiyam submitted that the decree issued by President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu to take the referendum presents a question that contradicts the Constitution, and stated that the referendum cannot proceed including that question.
The question asked in the referendum is whether the President should ratify the "Bill on the 8th Amendment to the Constitution," passed by the Parliament to establish the practice of holding Presidential and Parliamentary elections together and to define the rules for calculating the term of the Parliament.
In addition, the former MP for Kendhoo constituency Ali Hussain, has also submitted a constitutional case regarding the public referendum to the Supreme Court. He submitted to determine that the amendment brought by the Parliament to the Constitution to hold the Presidential and Parliamentary elections on the same day has now become void.
Cases regarding the public referendum have also been submitted to the High Court by the MDP previously. They also requested a temporary order to stop the vote in that case. However, no decision has yet been made on whether to accept those cases.
