Supreme Court rules secret voting not possible

Supreme Court has declared that the amendments made to the parliament regulations such that members may vote in secret on votes of no confidence for the President and the cabinet, are invalid, reasoning that they contradict the Constitution.

Six out of the seven judges at the Supreme Court bench voted in favour of invalidating the amendments. The Supreme Court ruling states that as the Constitution clearly stipulates the instances when the Parliament may conduct secret voting, the amendments contradict the Constitution.

The case was submitted to the Supreme Court by Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) council member Ahmed Siddeeq and Jumhoory Party member Ibrahim Hussain. They argued that such secret voting is against the principles of accountability and transparency and that it is goes against the concepts of the Constitution.

They also argued that the voting at the parliament to pass the motion to establish secret voting was joined by two MPs who could be disqualified from holding parliament seats, and some MPs who had been suspected of participating in activities against Islamic Sharia. However the Supreme Court ruling said that as the court had not ruled that these members had lost their parliament seats, these arguments were not taken into account when it made its decision on the issue of secret voting.

The case was voted against by Supreme Court Judge Ahmed Moothasim Adnan, who said that the parliament has the authority to amend its procedures and establish secret voting.

He said that no institution has the authority to change this decision by the parliament which did not violate any Islamic principles.

The parliament passed to amend its procedures to establish secret voting with 41 votes in favour on 3 December 2012. The motion was voted in favour by MPs representing Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) and Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP).

MDP has submitted no-confidence motions to the parliament against President Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik, Home Minister Dr Mohamed Jameel Ahmed and Defence Minister Mohamed Nazim. These votes have been postponed following a temporary order in this regard by the Supreme Court.