Parliament passes anti-defection bill

Parliament on Monday passed an anti-defection bill proposed as a law to disqualify MPs who switch parties after election on party tickets.

The bill was passed with 33 votes in favor and six votes against at today's sitting. The bill was submitted by Baarah MP Ahmed Abdulla on behalf of the main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP).

A committee made three amendments to the bill, which consists of 10 provisions. All seven members of the select committee that reviewed the bill were MDP MPs after other parties refused to participate.

At today's sitting, Addu Maradhoo MP Ibrahim Shareef raised a point of order and said that 44 MPs must be present inside the chamber to put the bill to a vote. In the point of order raised after the vote, Shareef noted that the bill concerned a matter that required compliance by citizens.

However, Speaker Mohamed Aslam, who presided over the sitting, said in response to the point of order that he had called the vote after consulting Parliament's Secretariat.

The disqualification of MPs was specified in Article 3 of the anti-defection bill. If an MP who was elected on a political party ticket leaves the party or changes to a different party, the MP would have to resign.

Article 3(d) stated that if an MP is expelled from the party from which he or she was elected or if an independent MP joined a party, the Elections Commission (EC) must hold a yes or no referendum in the constituency to decide whether the MP could remain in the seat.

But the committee revised the provision and scrapped the requirement for holding a referendum.

The committee changed the provision to state that an MP would have the discretion to file a court case within seven days. If the court rules against the MP and Parliament is informed of the decision by the EC, the MP would have to resign.

A provision added later states that if a court case is not filed, the MP must resign when Parliament is informed by the EC. A provision that required independent MPs to resign after joining a political party was also changed.

The change was made because holding by-elections for recall votes would be costly and require high levels of expenditure from the state budget, the committee report stated.

It is unclear when President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu would ratify the bill. The President shared his views on such a bill during a recent interview.

“We have MPs who changed from MDP. They changed for very legitimate reasons. But as a principle, I believe the best way is to stay in the elected party,” he said.

The President said that membership of Parliament is obtained by selling certain policies on the ticket of a particular party.

An anti-defection law was previously enforced in the People's Majlis. The law stated that MPs would lose their seat immediately if they changed parties.

However, following the defeat of the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) in the 2018 presidential election, opposition parties gained the Parliament's majority and voted to repeal the law. The repeal of the law was then ratified by former President Abdulla Yameen.