The Parliament has passed an amendment to the Constitution that proposes holding both the Presidential Election and the Parliamentary Election.
The government submitted the amendment to the Constitution, and the parliament passed the bill without any revisions to the original text.
At today's intense parliamentary session, Speaker of the Parliament Abdul Raheem Abdullah put the bill to a vote and said he would also participate in the vote.
Following the Speaker's decision, the bill passed with the backing of 72 out of the 73 MPs who took part in the vote. During the debate of the bill, the Speaker had called out the names of a number of MDP MPs who protested against rushing the bill and had been escorted out of the chambers.
The remaining MPS also decided not to take part in the vote.
The amendment to the constitution was initially submitted to the Parliament on the 5th of this month after the Parliament held an extraordinary session. The bill was forwarded to the relevant committee on the same day, and yesterday, the Parliament's Oversight Committee on Independent Institutions passed the bill without any revisions.
The Opposition has accused the government of duplicity because it had rushed the legislative process by taking advantage of its majority power in the Parliament.
This bill has been passed as an addition to Article 72 of the Constitution, which describes the election of members of parliament. The 2028 presidential election and the 2029 parliamentary elections will now be held on the same date.
The current five-year term of the parliament will be shortened to December 2008.
