Case filed to revoke Thinadhoo’s city status citing status granted fraudulently

A constitutional case has been filed with the High Court seeking to revoke city status granted to GDh. Thinadhoo by former president Ibrahim Mohamed Solih citing the status was granted fraudulently as Thinadhoo’s population does not reach 10,000 people.

The case was filed by lawyer and Deputy Minister for Climate Change, Environment and Energy Ahmed Raghib.

Rageeb is claiming that the 10,000 population mark was established by a population list with falsified information. Hence, he stressed that Thinadhoo does not meet the requirement for city status and in this trajectory, shared his reasoning for claiming so.

As per Rageeb, the said list included the names of 115 people who were deceased in order to show that Thinadhoo’s population was at 10,150. He noted that legal discrepancies between the population list maintained by the Department of National Registration (DNR) and Thinadhoo Council.

Discrepancies he highlighted in this regard include duplicate entries and repeated names with different ID card numbers. He also highlighted the council’s failure to clarify whether anyone registered to Thinadhoo had been registered to any other islands.

He further said information obtained from DNR places the current population of Thinadhoo at 7,924.  

Thus, Rageeb, in his case, requested to void all administrative actions taken in light of the decision to grant Thinadhoo city status. 

Former president Solih announced his decision to grant Thinadhoo city status during a campaign rally held at the island on August 30th. President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu ratified an amendment to the Decentralization Act to grant Thinadhoo city status back in March.