Allocating seats for women in the councils have certain obstacles: MPs

Some members have stated in parliament today that there are restrictions in the constitution to allocating a seat in atoll and island councils to the presidents of the women’s committees for island development, as sought by a bill presented today.

Proposed by Thulusdhoo MP Rozaina Adam, the bill seeks to establish a system where the women of the atoll and island council constituencies vote to elect a president for the women’s committee’s for island development, who will have a secured seat in the atoll and island councils.

The bill by MP Rozaina also states that the elections women’s committee presidents are to be conducted by the Elections Commission, where as the Decentralization Act already delegates the election to the Local Government Authority (LGA).

All members who spoke during the debate session for the bill had expressed support for the bill, although most members agreed that the bill needs certain amendments during its committee review.

Kulhudhuffushi-South MP Mohamed Nasheed said that Article 231 of the Constitution requires all members of councils to be democratically elected by secret ballot by their respective communities and that reserving a seat for a person elected through a ballot amongst women alone “might not be a very easy thing to do” according to the constitution.

“As a principle, reserving a seat for the female gender is something that I support. But I believe that, as of how the bill exists now, it might not be a very easy thing to do. The reason is, Article 231 of the constitution states that members of the island councils shall be elected through a secret ballot amongst island community itself. But Article 35 of the Decentralization Act states that the women’s committee for island development shall be elected through a ballot amongst the women alone. That the women arrive at the women’s committee through a different system, through vote amongst the women. I don’t think that the president of that women’s committee can be come a member of the island council, while Article 231 says as such,” MP Mohamed Nasheed said.

Kanditheemu MP Mohamed Hussain also noted that it was not justifiable for a person elected by vote from women alone hold a seat in the council, while the system dictates that the councils should be elected by a general vote amongst eligible voters of the constituency. However, he too agreed that the bill could be amended to fit in with existing legislature and still allocate a seat for women.

Nolhivaram MP Mohamed Nasheed (Kaanal Nasheed) also spoke in favour of amending the bill during the committee review, which he too, said was possible.