The Parliament has accepted the Amendment to the Constitution submitted by the government which states that any Parliament member who changes his political party would lose his/her parliament seat.
MP for Hulhudhoo Constituency Mohamed Shahid submitted the amendment which was accepted by the parliament with the vote from 69 out of the 81 MPs present at the session.
Twelve MPs from MDP voted against adopting the amendment.
When asked whether to send the amendment to a committee of the whole parliament, only 12 MDP members voted against it out of 83 members present.
The amendment was adopted and sent to the committee stage after only two hours of debate. The committee will also meet to further study the amendment.
Under the amendment, in one of these three cases, the elected members of Parliament will have to give up their seats;
- After contesting and being elected as a member of a particular party, a member leaves that party, or leaves that party and joins another party, or expels that member from the party
- When the member leaves the party he/she currently represents or leaves the party and joins another party, or the party expels the member
- When independently elected members join a political party
The government proposed the amendment to the Constitution, apparently to replace the current Anti-Defection Act and incorporate the provisions of the Act directly into the Constitution.
