The Parliament passes amendment to the constitution to extend the current Councilors’ term.
The session to pass the amendment was held in the early hours of the day. The bill on the 5th amendment to the constitution was passed with the approval from 74 members.
The bill was passed after Supreme advised the parliament to amend the constitution to make way for the local council elections delay amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Last Friday the whole house worked as a parliamentary subcommittee to deliberate on the constitutional amendment.
This extraordinary committee passed the bill on the constitutional committee with the proposed changes after 63 MPs voted for the bill.
At this stage MP for Medhu Henveiru constituency, Ali Azim proposed two changes to the bill including revoking article one of the bill and adding a new article after article 3 of the bill.
This meant adding two new clauses to the article 231 of the Constitution.
- The councilors elected to their posts by the local council elections in 2017 would remain in power even if their term expires until new councilors are elected to their posts.
- The councilors would carry out their duties as per a transitional policy passed under a law ordained by the parliament.
The local council election scheduled for April 4th of this year was delayed as the country grapples the Covid-19 crisis.
The term of the current councilors is expected to expire on Wednesday and the country would have been pushed in a legal vacuum had the parliament not passed the constitutional amendment.
