Pres relents to AG's advise, ratifies bill postponing parliamentary polls after Ramadan

President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu late Thursday finally relented to ratify the bill that would postpone the upcoming parliamentary elections until after the holy month of Ramadan.

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

The president however, 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.

But even after his presidential veto was overridden, president Muizzu had sought the Attorney General's legal advise before ratifying the bill following a Supreme Court ruling earlier in the day.

The main opposition MDP, which has a full majority in parliament had 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 earlier 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.

"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 had said before revealing that he sought the advise of the Attorney General to ratify the elections bill as he believed would be invalid following the top court verdict.

However, hours after he made the claim, President's Office in a brief statement said the president had ratified the amendment General Elections Act under the advise of the Attorney General.

This means the parliamentary elections originally slated for March 17 would now mostly likely be held on April 20.