Pres defies opposition pressure to hold off on ratifying elections bill

Incumbent president Dr. Mohamed Muizzu is set to defy opposition pressure to hold off on the ratification of a bill that would delay the upcoming parliamentary elections until after the holy month of Ramadan.

Parliament passed an amendment to the General Elections Act last week to hold the parliamentary elections 10 days after the end of Ramadan.

In the pursuant days, the president on several occasions had hinted that he would reject the bill as he wants to hold the elections on the originally scheduled date of March 17.

President's Office had later confirmed that the president had exercised his constitutional power to reject the bill and sent it back to the parliament for reconsideration.

But the opposition controlled parliament on Wednesday effectively overrode the presidential veto, by passing the same bill without any amendments.

According to the constitution, the president has the power to veto a bill passed by the parliament.

However, the constitution also says that if the same bill is passed with the support of the parliament majority for the second time without any amendments, president must then ratify it. Which means, the support of 47 MPs for the bill on Wednesday would be more than enough to force its ratification.

The opposition had demanded the president to ratify the bill immediately.

During his ongoing tour of the northern Atolls, referring to Supreme Court ruling hours earlier, president told the residents of Noonu Atoll Kendhikulhudhoo that he would not risk violating the constitution. 

"The five judge bench of the Supreme Court moments ago has ruled that any decision taken by the parliament limiting its strength to 80 MPs would be unconstitutional," president said. 

According to the constitution, two-thirds of the total votes of the parliament are required to remove the president or vice-president. The total strength of the current parliament is 87.

But several ruling PPM/PNC lawmakers resigned to take up senior positions in the government shortly after the presidential elections, with no time between the next parliamentary elections to hold by-elections to fill the vacant seats. 

The main opposition MDP, which has a full majority in parliament orchestrated an amendment to the parliament rules of procedure to count the number of sitting members in parliament at the time.

In the Attorney General led challenge, the Supreme Court's ruling delivered Thursday said the parliament cannot limit its strength which was in direct violation of the constitution. 

The apex court said the constitution has specified the quorum of the parliament with a specific purpose and each seat represents thousands of people, which cannot be discounted under any circumstance.

"However, since the articles in question have now been annulled, there nothing more this court can do," the ruling delivered by the five judge bench said. 

After the Supreme Court tabled the first hearing of the case on February 25, the parliamentary general purposes committee during a sit-down last Thursday annulled the contested amendments. 

The committee instead, added an article parliament rules of procedure which now states that the total strength of the parliament would ignore vacant seats if there is no time to hold a by-election to elect a member to the seat. 

In light of the Supreme Court's verdict, president said he can only move forward once he gets the legal advise from the Attorney General.