Nasheed, Fayyaz seek MDP congress backing for ‘Bodu Badhalu’ agenda

Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) President Mohamed Nasheed and former Economic Minister Fayyaz Ismail have decided to seek the party congress's endorsement of their “Bodu Badhalu” — or “Big Change” — agenda, which proposes a series of changes to the Constitution.

Fayyaz, who has announced his intention to contest the MDP presidential primary, previously said on Dhauru's Ehbasve Dhebasvamaa podcast that he intended to seek congress approval for the agenda so that it would remain party policy regardless of who becomes the MDP's presidential candidate.

According to a document released by the MDP on Sunday, Fayyaz will submit a resolution on the agenda to the party congress, which begins on 1 October. Former MP Ilyas Labeeb will second the resolution.

The resolution seeks to establish the proposals under the “Bodu Badhalu” agenda as MDP policy and commit the party to pursuing the required constitutional amendments.

Among the proposals is a change to the process for amending the Constitution. Under the plan, constitutional amendments would be considered by a special assembly comprising members of Parliament as well as elected local councillors. Certain amendments would also require approval through a public referendum.

The agenda also proposes introducing a mechanism allowing voters to remove elected officials from office before the end of their terms.

Changes to local council voting are also proposed. The agenda calls for studies on allowing people to vote for the council of the constituency where they reside rather than the constituency where they are registered, with the changes to be introduced based on the findings.

The proposals would also restructure Parliament by electing members from each atoll and city and fixing the total number of MPs to prevent the size of Parliament from increasing.

Changes to the judiciary include requiring the removal of Supreme Court judges to be decided through a public vote. The agenda also proposes changing the composition of the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) to remove political and government influence.

A separate commission would be established to hold independent institutions accountable, with its membership drawn from members selected from the public.

One of the most significant proposals is to separate the positions of head of government and head of state. Under the proposed system, the head of government would be elected by popular vote, while the head of state would be elected by the proposed special assembly.