Parliament extends session to “wrap up important works”; likely to pass amendments to scrap atoll councils

The Parliament has resolved to extend this year third and last parliamentary session by a week “to wrap up important works”.

While kicking off Wednesday’s parliamentary sitting, Speaker Abdul Raheem Abdulla noted that the ongoing parliamentary session is scheduled to conclude at the conclusion of this month.

“However, as the are important works pending in the Parliament, I intent to ask for a vote regarding extending the current parliamentary session until December 4, 2025,” he said.

As such, Abdul Raheem said the matter will be put to vote during today’s sitting voting time.

The extension of the session was approved by the votes of 55 lawmakers during the voting time, with seven lawmakers voting against it.

It is likely that the Parliament is being extended to complete works related to pass amendments which would pave the way to abolish atoll councils.

While the Parliament, on Tuesday, passed constitutional amendments required in this trajectory on Tuesday, the amendments to the Local Council Election Act and the Decentralization Act, which would remove the term “Atoll Council” from both laws, effectively disbanding these councils and ending elections for their members, is still pending.

Under the updated Decentralization Act, island councils would report directly to the Local Government Authority (LGA) rather than to Atoll Councils. The number of councillors per island council would be reduced to three, except in constituencies with populations over 2,000, where five councillors would be elected.

The changes would also impact Women’s Development Committees (WDCs), with membership numbers adjusted to match the number of elected councillors. Committee chairpersons would be directly elected by residents of their respective islands or cities.

The government had first announced its plan to abolish Atoll Councils on August 19 of last year. President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu has described the Atoll Council positions as redundant and pledged to remove them.

Local Government Minister Adam Shareef Umar echoed this stance in a September interview on PSM’s Raajje Miadhu program, calling Atoll Councils an unnecessary layer in the decentralisation system.

In addition to dissolving Atoll Councils, the President has also proposed reducing the size of island councils according to population thresholds.