Pres urges parliament to fast-track bill to relax assembly rights

President Mohamed Muizzu has urged the Parliament to expedite the bill to remove the clause introduced by former President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom's administration to the 'Freedom of Peaceful Assembly Act', which limits public gatherings and demonstrations.

In 2019, Abdullah Jabir, then a private member and now a member of the MDP, proposed to amend the Act to allow people to gather and demonstrate without prior permission. It was a promise of the then President Solih but the MDP-majority parliament did not proceed with the bill and parked it in the committee stage.

The President has requested to expedite the work on the bill on Monday, in his first presidential address delivered at the opening of Parliament for the year.

"I have requested your esteemed Parliament to expedite the bill to amend the Right to Peaceful Assembly Act" he said.

Muizzu’s presidential statement also detailed some of the bills he intends to introduce in Parliament this term. These include a bill to amend the law on the bail system. Other bills he mentioned are:

Bill to amend the section that prohibits gatherings

On August 17, 2016, the Yameen government amended the Assembly Act to allow any kind of rally, march or procession in the city only in places designated and publicly announced by the Home Ministry. After the amendment was passed on August 23, 2016, only the Carnival area was designated as a place for gatherings.

After that:

Four years after the bill was referred back to the Committee on Security Services for redemption, work on it resumed in October after the results of the September elections.