Parliament dismisses bill limiting council by-elections

The Parliament on Monday dismissed the bill proposing amendments to the Local Council Elections Act to limit by-elections for vacancies in local councils and women’s development committees to once a year.

The bill was submitted by the government by Velidhoo MP Mohamed Abdulla Shafeeq.

It aimed to amend the deadline for holding by-elections from 60 days to 365 days. Moreover, it stipulated that the duration between two by-elections should not be less than 300 days.

The bill was forwarded to the Parliament’s Decentralization Committee for review on October 17.

After deliberating on the proposed amendments, the committee decided that it was not a priority to limit the number of by-elections and hence dismissed the bill.

In the vote taken to decide on the bill, 48 of the 50 members who took part favored the dismissal.

 Following this, another vote was taken to decide whether the bill should be sent back to the committee. All 50 members voted against this.