Emergency motion over non-ratification of bill postponing election

An emergency motion has been submitted to the parliament over President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu’s non-ratification of the bill passed by the parliament to postpone the upcoming parliamentary election.

Elections Commission (EC) scheduled the parliamentary elections for March 17 – which falls within the first week of Ramadan – sparked concern over a likely low voter turnout.

The Parliament, on February 11th, approved a bill to amend the General Elections Act which stipulates that a national election must be held 10 days after Ramadan ends if an election date falls within Ramadan with the votes of 46 MPs.

However, the amendment will only come into force once the bill is ratified by President Muizzu. Although the bill was sent for ratification on February 12th, it has not yet been ratified. 

The emergency motion submitted by Ungoofaru MP Mohamed Waheed (Wadde) on Wednesday claimed that the amendment was brought as a solution to the difficulties the public may face if the election is held during Ramadan.

Concern was raised in the emergency motion over President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu “stalling” the ratification of the bill causing the public to remain in a state of “confusion” over the official date of the election.

Underscoring that the bill was passed with the support of MPs aligned with the government – the emergency motion stressed that the non-ratification of the bill would subject the public to losses.

MP Waheed, pointing out that President Muizzu has remarked that the election will be on March 17th without ratifying the bill, attributed the non-ratification to an act aligned with personal interest.

The emergency motion was accepted by the votes of 23 MPs. Only one MP voted to reject the emergency motion.