Ilyas submits motion calling for referendum before Nov’s end

Hulhudhoo MP Ilyas Labeeb, who contested the presidential election on behalf of the Democrats, has submitted a resolution calling for a constitutional referendum to decide on changing the system of governance in Maldives from a presidential system to a parliamentary system, before the end of November.

In a meeting of the Democrats’ interim council, Ilyas said that he submitted the resolution to the Parliament on Tuesday. He said his resolution calls for a referendum to be held before November 30 – which is when the second round of voting in the presidential election is slated for.

Ilyas said he decided to submit the resolution based on the experience from the administrations that have come since 2008. He said that the time has come to put the question before the people.

“Since the constitution was ratified in 2008 to up until now, no party has won a majority in a presidential election without forming a coalition with another party,” he said.

Ilyas said that they have to work to either unseat a president or free political detainees, every time.

He said that people haven’t been able to vote freely for what’s on manifestos.

“The time has come to ask the people. I find this is the right time. Do we keep the system in place? Or do we change it?” he said.

Ilyas, along with other members of the Democrats, had called out for a constitutional referendum during the parliamentary sitting on Tuesday morning.

The referendum had also been one of the reasons for the breakaway faction within the ruling MDP, which later became the Democrats.

At Tuesday, council meeting, some members suggested setting holding a constitutional referendum as a condition for any coalition deal for the election runoff.