President Dr. Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik has said that although the Maldivian people had decided on a presidential democracy, the constitution was not designed to operate a presidential system.

The president made his statements while speaking at a campaign event in STELCO auditorium last night to launch his coalition’s policy on the equal implementation of the rule of law.

He said that ambiguity of the system poses certain difficulties and that the people have to decide on either a parliamentary or a presidential system.

“The parliament was not designed to conduct a presidential system. It was designed to run a parliamentary democracy. This is what’s causing so many difficulties. At some point, we have to decide whether we want our country to have a democratic republic or a parliamentary system,” president Waheed said.

He said that the current structure allows certain key powers to the parliament that forces the president to sometimes act as a “postman.”

“The current system allows a number of key powers to the parliament as in a parliamentary system. But we don’t have a parliamentary system executive. Then there is the president, who is a separate institution. But the president’s powers have been divided, distributed here and there.”

He said that constitution had been heavily influenced during its assembly process and accused both former governments – Maumoon Abdul Gayoom and Mohamed Nasheed’ administrations – of having tried to curb the powers of the executive.

“It was heavily politicized. If we look at our constitutional history, it is quite evident. They have tried to neutralize the powers of the president, to limit the powers of the president, even while the constitution was being drafted during Maumoon Abdul Gayoom’s government. They’re trying to do the same now. So, the current presidency does have the powers that the executive should have in a democratic republic, in an executive presidency.”

He also said that the members of the special parliament who worked on the constitution did not have the proper legal and administrative experience to assemble a constitution.

The President said that a study of the system is necessary to identify its shortcomings and consequently amend the constitution. He pledged to propose to amendments to the constitution in order to ensure that the next 5 years is better managed.

“The country has seen a democracy only for the last four and half years of its constitutional history. The constitution has not seen a single amendment within this period. But in another country that might have embarked on the same journey, or in countries that have made the same journey, the constitution sees a lot of changes during the first years of the its life. This is to try and perfect the system.”

On a different note, the president said that the judiciary too needed reform and that the Judicial Service Commission in particular needs to be re-structured in order to shield the commission from political influence.