President: Advocating to elect president through a preferential voting system

President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu, on Sunday, clarified that he is advocating to elect a Maldivian head of state through a preferential voting system.

The President has sought the support of ruling PNC lawmakers to amend the law to eliminate runoffs in presidential elections.

Sun has learned that the President met with PNC lawmakers at the presidential residence, Muleeaage, on Thursday evening.

During the meeting, the President announced that efforts were underway to hold a referendum on eliminating runoffs in presidential elections. He also noted that efforts were underway to hold a referendum on jointly holding the presidential elections and the parliamentary elections.

The Maldives currently uses the single-member plurality system for parliamentary and council elections, and the two-round or runoff system for presidential elections.

President Muizzu clarified on Sunday that he is advocating to elect a Maldivian head of state through a preferential voting system via text message to his official Whatsapp channel, launched recently and accessible to the public.

The preferential voting system is an electoral system where the voter can rank candidates in order of preference.

Such a system would allow the election of a president without a runoff. This system is followed in some foreign nations.

The preferential voting system has been backed by former president Mohamed Nasheed, who has urged the support of opposition MDP and The Democrats for such a change.

However, MDP’s chairperson Fayyaz Ismail and former vice president Faisal Naseem has rejected eliminating presidential runoffs.

In this regard, Fayyaz alleged the proposal to eliminate presidential runoffs under the pretense of reducing state expenditure lacked genuine intent. Meanwhile, Faisal has slammed the move to amend the constitution for the purpose of extending a term in office, calling it a blatant breach of the constitution’s core principles.