Speaker Nasheed: Parliament’s composition needs reform

Parliament Speaker, former President Mohamed Nasheed said on Wednesday that the composition of the Parliament needs to be changed to have parliamentarians who represent the entire Maldives, instead of individual geographic constituencies. 

He made his opinion on the matter known in a letter he released via social media on Wednesday evening. 

Nasheed said that the seats in the Parliament continues to increase as the population rises, and that he believes it important to set a limit for parliamentary seats. 

“It is important to change the Constitution to determine a way to limit the number of seats,” he said. 

The Parliament is currently composed of representatives of separate geographic constituencies. 

Nasheed said it was leading to a shortage of parliamentarians who can advocate on behalf of the entire Maldivian population. 

Noting that politics in Maldives was based on a multi-party system, Nasheed said he found it would be best to have national list parliamentarians – who are elected from a party list rather than from by a geographical constituency. 

Nasheed said that the current system did not allow for parliamentarians to do much after advocating on behalf of their constituency. 

He also suggested having a quota for women on the national list.