Maldives to revise laws to introduce cap on budget spending on political posts

President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu has announced plans to draft laws to introduce a cap on spending on political posts through the state budget.

In a press briefing at the President’s Office on Saturday morning, President Muizzu announced plans to submit 30 additional bills to the Parliament this year.

This includes bills to amend the Constitution in order to:

• Combine the presidential election and the parliamentary election
• Shift to a one-round preferential voting system for presidential election
• Revert the start of presidential terms back to November 11
• Cap parliamentary seats at 93
• Introduce a system where elected officials can be removed following recall votes
• Drop atoll councils

Explaining some of these proposed bills, President Muizzu said that he plans on introducing a system where all elected officials, including parliamentarians and councilors, can be removed from office through recall votes.

“This is designed to empower the people. The people can remove an official they elect mid-term if they wish to,” he said.

Other planned legislative amendments include:

• Have a cap on spending on political posts from the state budget written into law
• Empower the Parliament to determine a cap on political appointments
• Have the government require to disclose details of political appointments with the Parliament

“Political appointments will be carried out through a system with checks and balances,” he said.

During his 2023 presidential campaign, President Muizzu pledges to cap political appointments at 700. However, the opposition alleges the number now far exceeds 2,000.

The exact number of political appointments remain unclear as the government has refused to publicly disclose this figure.

Maldives, a country of some 400,000 people, has 30,312 people employed in the civil service. There are also close to 20,000 people employed in various institutions, independent institutions and political posts.

Despite repeated urging by global financial institutions to cut costs, statistics show spending on salaries and allowances remain high.

The latest statistics released by the Finance Ministry shows that spending on salaries has increased by 11 percent this year – rising from MVR 1.42 billion last year to MVR 1.58 billion this year.