Gov to introduce anti-defection provisions in constitution

The main ruling People’s National Congress (PNC) has decided to submit legislature to the Parliament on Wednesday, seeking to introduce an anti-defection clause in the Constitution to prevent floor-crossing.

The decision comes amid legal concerns over the ambiguity of the Anti-Defection Act enacted in April. The Act stipulates that lawmakers must resign if they floor cross. However, it fails to specify the course of action should they refuse to resign.

A credible source from within the PNC confirms to Sun that the party – which holds a supermajority in the Parliament – plans to submit necessary constitutional amendments on Wednesday.

The government reportedly plans to fast-track the legislature and have it passed the same day.

The Act stipulates that lawmakers will lose their seat under three circumstances:

• If they voluntarily resign from the party they are elected on behalf of
• If they register with a different party than the one they were elected on behalf of
• If an independent lawmaker signs with a political party

The Act also stipulates that a recall vote will be mandatory under two circumstances:

• If a lawmaker is dismissed or expelled from the party they were elected on behalf of
• If an independent lawmaker signs with a political party

The Act stipulates that lawmakers who win the recall vote will get the right to switch parties, while those who lose will not.

It also stipulates that byelections must be held to fill the vacant seats, which lawmakers who lose their seats are also eligible to contest.

However, the Act does not stipulate what must be done if lawmakers refuse to resign.

Some legal experts also argue that the Act contradicts with Article 73 (c) of the Constitution, which declares circumstances where lawmakers will lose their seats. The circumstances are:

• If a lawmakers have a proven debt but refuse to repay it in accordance with the court ruling
• If a lawmaker is convicted of a crime and is serving a term of over 12 months
• If a lawmaker is convicted of a crime and sentenced to a term of over 12 months, but it has not been three years since they either finished serving the sentence or had the sentence commuted
• If a lawmaker is a judge in a court of law

It is likely the government decided to amend the Constitution in order to address these legal concerns.

The Parliament had passed anti-defection legislature back in 2018. The legislature was formulated in response to a Supreme Court ruling in July 2017, in which the top court established that lawmakers would lose their seat if they left or were expelled the party they were elected from, or if they switched parties. The ruling, which contentiously stripped the seats of a dozen lawmakers who left the then-ruling Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM), called for the formulation of anti-defection legislature.

The bill was submitted by the then-PPM parliamentary group leader Ahmed Nihan Hussain Manik in March 2018. But the bill was repealed in November 2018.

The current Anti-Defection Act was submitted by the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) earlier this year, after 14 of its lawmakers defected to the PNC following the party’s defeat in the 2023 presidential election.