ELECTIONS IN THE MALDIVES
Elections are generally held every five years.The last presidential one was in 2018 and the next one is in 2023. The last parliamentary one was in 2018 and the next one is in 2024.
Legal voting age: 18 (compared to 16 in Ethiopia and Austria and 25 in United Arab Emirates, most country are 18) Not so long ago the voting age was 21. About half of the Maldives population is eligible to vote. [Source: CIA World Factbook, 2020]
Voter turnout: A) for presidential election in 2018: 89.2 percent,compared to 91.4 percent in 2013 and 85.4 percent in 2008; B) for parliament elections in 2018: 75.5 percent, compared to 77.9 percent in 2014 and 78.9 percent in 2008;. [Source: President IDEA idea.int ]
In the 2003 presidential election 414 ballot boxes were used. The results took a couple days to tally because the boxes had to be delivered to Malé by boat.
Parliamentary elections: last held on April 6, 2019. The next will be held in 2024. The 2019 election results: A) percent of vote — Maldives Democratic Party (MDP) 44.7 percent; Jumhooree Party (JP): 10.8 percent; Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM): 8.7 percent; People's National Congress (PNC): 6.4 percent; Maldives Development Alliance (MDA): 2.8 percent; other: 5.6 percent; independent: 21 percent; B) Seats by party — MDP: 65; JP: 5; PPM: 5; PNC: 3; MDA: 2; independent: 7; C) composition — men 83; women 4; percent of women 4.6 percent [Source: CIA World Factbook, 2020]
The Maldives’s unicameral Parliament or People's Majlis has 87 seats, including two seats added by the Elections Commission in late 2018. Members are directly elected in single-seat constituencies by simple majority vote to serve five-year terms.
Before the mid 2000s, the Citizen' Majlis (parliament) had 48 or 50 members elected to five year terms, with two elected from each atoll and Malé and eight are nominated by the president. For the most part members were elected. Elections to the Majlis, held individually and not necessarily in conjunction with its sessions, were held in December 1994, December 1999, and January 2005. The first parliamentary elections for directly elected in single-seat constituencies by simple majority vote were held in March 2009 to choose a new 74-member Majlis..
Presidential Elections in the Maldives
The president is directly elected by absolute majority popular vote in two rounds if needed for a five-year term and is eligible for two terms.. The last election was held on September 23, 2018. The next is in 2023. Result of the 2018 presidential election: Ibrahim Mohamed Solih (Maldives Democratic Party, MDP) elected president in the first round) 58.3 percent of the vote.Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom (Progressive Party of Maldives, PPM) was second with 41.7 percent
Before the new 2008 constitution and presidential election the same year the President of the Maldives was elected in a referendum rather a real election and there was no limit to the number of five year terms he or she could serve. Maumoon Abdul Gayoom (b. 1937), who ruled for 30 years until 2008. He was reelected the president of the Maldives five times, in 1983, 1988, 1993, 1998, and 2003 under a one-candidate referendum. The president has traditionally exercised power through the ministries of law and religion. He was supposed to govern at the will of the legislature but that was often not been the case. He was constitutionally permitted to have as many vice presidents as he wanted.
Before 2008, the president was elected for a renewable five-year term by the Majlis, or legislature. The election had be formalized through confirmation in a popular referendum. The chief executive was assisted by a cabinet, or Council of Ministers, whose members serve at his pleasure. The post of prime minister, which had existed under the sultan and in the early years of the republic, was eliminated in 1975 by President Ibrahim Nasir because of abuses of the office. [Source: Helen Chapin Metz, Library of Congress, 1994 *]
Women in Government in the Maldives
Women have been able to vote for some time but have are not very active in politics in the Maldives. Under the 1968 Constitution of the Maldives women were not allowed to hold the office of president, but all other political, administrative and other posts were open to them. Women can rune for president now. [Source: Leena Banerjee, “World Education Encyclopedia”, The Gale Group Inc., 2001]
Year women obtained the right to vote: 1932 (compared to 1893 in New Zealand and 2011 in Saudi Arabia). 1932 is when the Maldives became a constitutional monarchy. [Source: Wikipedia
Proportion of seats held by women in parliament: 4.7 percent.
[Source: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Statistics Division, genderstats.un.org ]
Parliament composition after 2019 election (out of 87 seats): men: 83 seats; women: 4 seats; percent of women 4.6 percent [Source: CIA World Factbook, 2020]
Politics on the Maldives
Maldivian politics are still largely controlled by old aristocratic families. Political battles in the past sometimes ended with the loser being banished to another island. In recent years they have been targets of terrorist attacks. There is a tradition of atolls in the south demanding autonomy but this tendency s not a strong a sit once was. [Source: Clarence Maloney and Nils Finn Munch-Petersen, “Encyclopedia of World Cultures Volume 3: South Asia,” edited by Paul Paul Hockings, 1992]
For 30 years Maldives politics was dominated by Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who was president of the country from 1978 to 2008. During that time, according to “Governments of the World,” “political life of the Maldives is was characterized by the absence of political parties and interest groups to organize citizen participation in political life. Parties and groups are discouraged due to the emphasis on unity and homogeneity. Despite the general and formal appreciation of human rights and freedoms, there are some restrictions and occasional violations of freedoms and rights, especially speech, press, and religion, and Freedom House rated the Maldives in 2004 as "not free." [Source: “Governments of the World: A Global Guide to Citizens' Rights and Responsibilities”, 2006]
P Sahadevan, professor of South Asian studies at Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University, told The Guardian that after Gayoom's one-man show, the political situation in the Maldives needed time to stabilize. “The opposition has everybody from the democrats to the conservative Islamic parties. It'll be hard to keep them together," [Source: Randeep Ramesh, The Guardian, October 29, 2008]
Political Parties in the Maldives
Before 2005 organized political parties were essentially banned. Candidates for elective office had to run as independents on the basis of personal qualifications. As of 2007 four parties had registered — Adalath (Justice), Dhivehi Raiyyethunge, Islamic Democratic Party, and Maldivian Democratic Party — and members of parliament had begun to announce their affiliations. [Source: “Gale Encyclopedia of World History: Governments”, Thomson Gale, 2008]
Now there are about a dozen significant political parties. President Ibrahim "Ibu" Mohamed Solih (since 17 November 2018) is a member of the Maldives Democratic Party( MDP). In the 2018 election he defeated Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom of the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM). Former president Mohamed Nasheed heads the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP). Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who was president of the Maldives from 1978 to 2008, heads the Maldives Reform Movement (MRM).
2019 Parliamentary election results: A) percent of vote — Maldives Democratic Party (MDP) 44.7 percent; Jumhooree Party (JP): 10.8 percent; Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM): 8.7 percent; People's National Congress (PNC): 6.4 percent; Maldives Development Alliance (MDA): 2.8 percent; other: 5.6 percent; independent: 21 percent; B) Seats by party — MDP: 65; JP: 5; PPM: 5; PNC: 3; MDA: 2; independent: 7; C) composition — men 83; women 4; percent of women 4.6 percent [Source: CIA World Factbook, 2020]
Political parties and leaders:
Adhaalath (Justice) Party or AP led by Sheikh Imran Abdulla
Maldives Development Alliance or MDA led by Ahmed Shiyam Mohamed
Maldivian Democratic Party or MDP led by Mohamed Nasheed
Maldives Labor and Social Democratic Party or MLSDP led by Ahmed Shiham
Maldives Third Way Democrats or MTD led by Ahmed Adeeb
Maldives Reform Movement or MRM led by Maumoon Abdul Gayoom
People's National Congress or PNC led by Abdul Raheem Abdulla] (formed in early 2019)
Progressive Party of Maldives or PPM led by Abdulla Yameen
Republican (Jumhooree) Party or JP led by Qasim Ibrahim] (2019)
[Source: CIA World Factbook, 2020]
Politics in the Gayoom Era in the Maldives (1978-2008)
During the Gayoom Era in the Maldives (1978-2008) presidential and Majlis elections are held on a nonpartisan basis because there are no organized political parties in the country. Candidates run as independents on the basis of personal qualifications. Political parties were not officially banned, but they are officially discouraged. Candidates campaigned on their family and personal stature. [Source: Helen Chapin Metz, Library of Congress, 1994 *]
Although in 1994 Maldives had no organized political competition in the Western sense, partisan conflict occurred behind the scenes. Battles were intensely fought on the basis of factional or personal alliances among elite circles. For more than twenty years, until late 1978, the dominant faction had been led by former President Nasir, who ran the government with a firm hand and who seldom appeared in public. His sudden departure from Maldives, subsequently revealed as connected with malfeasance, ended a political era.*
Transition was smooth under the new leadership group presided over by Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, a former cabinet member and diplomat who took office on November 11, 1978, after a peaceful election. The new president pledged to administer the country in a fair and more open manner by restoring civil rights, by establishing rapport at the grass-roots level, and by remedying the long neglect of popular welfare in the outer islands. However, criticism of alleged nepotism and corruption has continued through the 1980s and early 1990s.*
Gayoom's presidential cabinet, including his relatives in key positions, is considered a "kitchen cabinet" of traditional power holders that exert a strong influence against democratic reforms on a weak but relatively popular president. Events in the spring of 1990 tended to confirm that Gayoom's announced support for democratic reform was not being honored throughout the governmental power structure. In April, three pro-reform members of the Majlis received anonymous death threats. A few months later, all publications not sanctioned by the government were banned, and some leading writers and publishers were arrested. These actions followed the emergence of several politically outspoken magazines, including Sangu (Conch Shell). The circulation of this magazine increased from 500 in February 1990 to 3,000 in April.*
Gayoom reshuffled the cabinet in May 1990, dismissing his brother-in-law, Ilyas Ibrahim, as minister of state for defense and national security. Ibrahim had left the country suddenly, apparently before being called to account for embezzlement and misappropriation of funds. Gayoom placed him under house arrest when he returned in August 1990. He was cleared by an investigatory commission in March 1991 and appointed minister of atolls' administration. In April 1991, President Gayoom established a board to investigate charges of malfeasance against government officials. As a result of Gayoom's increasing assertion of his power in the early 1990s, by 1992 he had assumed the duties of both minister of defense and minister of finance, posts which he still held in August 1994 as well as that of governor of the Maldives Monetary Authority. Gayoom was reelected to a fourth five-year term as president in national elections in 1993. His principal rival, Ilyas Ibrahim, was sentenced to fifteen years' banishment after being found guilty of "treason" because of his attempts to win the presidency.*
Conservative Islam in the Maldives
The Maldives does not allow freedom of worship and Sunni Islam is the state religion. In 2008, a constitutional amendment denied non-Muslims the right to be Maldivian citizens. Alcohol beverages and pork products available only at the airport and resorts employing only foreign workers. "Idols" from other religions are also not allowed into the country. [Source: asianews.it, May 23, 2014]
Mary Boland wrote in the Irish Times: “The island paradise’s faltering experiment with democracy has given way to increasingly repressive measures that have curtailed the lives of Maldivians and facilitated the rise of Islamic extremism. “The official line is that tourists — and their polluting, infidel views — should be kept away from the Maldivian people for the sake of the people’s Islamic faith. [Source: Mary Boland, Irish Times, August 16, 2014]
But there is another side to it,” says Azra Naseem, a Maldivian who is visiting fellow at the International Institute of Conflict Resolution and Reconstruction at Dublin City University, where she is researching the Islamic radicalisation of her country. The truth, she says, is that the Maldives has been transformed from a moderate Islamic nation into an increasingly fundamentalist regime led by opportunists who have gained politically by allowing religious radicals to dictate state affairs. The changing of an entire population’s religious beliefs and practices within the space of a decade — in ways that roll back almost all progressive ideas that it has embraced over centuries — is extremely serious,” says Naseem.
““Salafi and Wahhabi ideologies have become not just dominant but almost the only religious ideology in town. Counter-narratives are non-existent,” he says. “An increasing number of parents are opting to home- school children rather than ‘spoil’ them with education. Little girls are being made to wear headscarves, sexualising them as early as five or six. But to foreign observers it’s not serious because people aren’t killing each other — yet. Perhaps now that Maldivians have been found fighting in Syria with some of the most violent Islamists there may be more attention paid to the desperate situation in the country.”
“Some 20 Maldivians are known to have joined the fight against the Assad regime in Syria, and at least two have died in suicide bombings there. By saying little on the topic, argues Naseem, the government is tacitly supporting such radicals.
“Critics of former dictator Gayoom, who at 76 reportedly still pulls the presidential strings, blame him for engineering the changes for his benefit. “In the late 1990s, when fundamentalists began to emerge in Maldivian society, he clamped down hard on them” and banned the hijab, says Naseem. “As a dictator there were no repercussions for him when he jailed the radicals, even tortured them, to stop their ideas from spreading. Now he has declared himself an ally who shares their ideologies.”
“A relatively relaxed version of the religion was practised under Gayoom until 2004, when an influx of preachers, funded mainly by Saudi Arabia, arrived after the tsunami. It had caused widespread damage and killed some 100 people. “It was a turning point in the radicalisation process,” says Naseem. “Local Islamists were very clever in their use of the tragedy to convince Maldivians that the tsunami was punishment from Allah for not practising the ‘right’ Islam — which is the ‘purist’ Islam that Salafis and other fundamentalists want all Muslims to turn to.” The result is a society transformed beyond recognition, says Velezinee: “A decade ago, women wearing the veil were a minority and women wearing the full black hijab were hardly seen. Today the Arab-style full veil is common.”
“Maldivian women in their 20s and early 30s recall how they could stroll around Malé as teenagers wearing strappy tops and shorts. “Now you just couldn’t do it,” says one. “You’d be shouted at and chased.” Opponents of the new ideology criticise the government on social media sites but dare not do so openly because their comments risk being construed as unIslamic, thus unconstitutional and liable to severe punishment. Under the constitution Maldivians must be Muslim to be citizens, and Sunni Muslim to run for political office. Religion, a taboo subject, is avoided even by journalists.
Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons
Text Sources: New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Lonely Planet Guides, Library of Congress, Republic of Maldives Department of Information, the government site (maldivesinfo.gov.mv), Ministry of Tourism Maldives (tourism.gov.mv), Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC, visitmaldives.com), The Guardian, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Wikipedia and various books, websites and other publications.
Last updated February 2022