Parliament accepts amendment to fix number of seats in parliament

Parliament has accepted a bill asking to amend the constitution, to maintain the number of seats in parliament at seventy seven members.

Presented by Kudahuvadhoo MP Ahmed Amir, the bill was accepted with a majority of 35 votes.

According to the parliament, the number of constituencies and seats in parliament will increase to 85 for the next five year term, to begin in 2014.

MP Ahmed Amir’s bill asks to amend article 71 (a) of the constitution to fix the number of seats in parliament to 77 seats, regardless of the increase in population.

Detailing the principles to determine the membership of the parliament, Article 71 (a) of the constitution states that there shall be two members for the first 5000 residents registered for each administrative division, or two members for divisions with less than 5000 residents. It also states that in groups where the number of residents exceeds five thousand, one additional member shall be elected for each group of 5000 residents in excess.

The bill also asks to amend Article 71 (a) such that the administrative divisions will remain the same as of that determined for the parliament election in 2009, and asks for the Article 71 (c) to be removed.

Article 71 (c) states that a law shall specify the manner of determining the number of electoral constituencies in each administrative division and the boundaries of each electoral constituency, and that such law shall specify the principles pursuant to which the population on each administrative division shall be divided into the separate electoral constituencies such that there is an approximately equal division of the population.