EC asks parliament to clarify system referendum question
The EC said that the public referendum will cost about MVR 40 million.
By
Fathmath Ahmed Shareef
The Elections Commission (EC) has requested the parliament to determine and provide the question to be asked of the people in the public referendum seeking views on changing the country's governance system.
Parliament on Thursday sent to the Elections Commission a resolution passed at Wednesday's sitting seeking a referendum on the system of governance in Maldives by October 30.
After seeking legal advice on the resolution, Elections Commission Vice-President and Spokesperson Ismail Habeeb said on X on Thursday that there are issues that need to be answered before such a vote. The parliament has been asked to clarify those issues, he added.
At a subsequent press conference on Saturday, Habeeb said:
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When holding a referendum, the EC needs to know what the topic is and what the question to be posed to the public is
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The EC asked to clarify what question should be asked of the people, to pass it and send it to them
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Since people need to know important information about why this vote is being taken and the same need to be known before taking the vote, they have been asked to send the information to make people aware
"We [have told the parliament] that we are ready. But there are legal questions that arise in this regard and we can only proceed after getting answers to those questions. And we have to get the budget for this. We have informed that," Habeeb said.
He has previously stated that such a referendum will require at least 30 to 45 days, subject to the rules of the General Electoral Act. It will cost about MVR 40 million, he said.
The Democrats, led by speaker Mohamed Nasheed who has always advocated for a parliamentary system, submitted the resolution to the parliament seeking a referendum before October 30 on the choice of governance system.
The resolution, which called for the parliament to directly ask the Elections Commission to hold the referendum, was passed with MDP's backing as well.
Although the resolution mandated the parliament to ask the Elections Commission to hold the referendum, President Ibrahim Mohammed Solih believes:
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Referendum on governance system can be taken only after the parliament passes a motion by a three-fourth majority or with the backing of 66 out of the 87 MPs, sends motion to him, following which he can request the Elections Commission to hold a referendum
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If the resolution is passed by the parliament and sent to him, he will request the Elections Commission to take the vote before October 30, as per Ilyas's resolution, before the presidential runoff
