Parliamentarians of the ruling Progressive Party of Maldives have proposed amendment bills to the Presidential Elections Act, tightening the qualifications to ensure a smooth win for incumbent President Abdulla Yameen. 

Under the proposed new amendments, a Maldivian would be ineligible to run in a presidential election for 10 years after giving up dual nationality.

The bill proposed by ruling Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM)’s Parliamentary Group leader Ahmed Nihan Hussain Manik states that the Constitution  already states that “an elected leader must be Maldivian citizen born to parents who are Maldivian citizens and must not be a foreign citizen”. Hence, he proposed to add that ‘a Maldivian who has had dual citizenship will be barred from running in a presidential election for 10 years after renouncing foreign citizenship’. 

While the bill was proposed at the first meeting of the Parliament’s second session held on Monday, Faresmaathodhaa constituency MP Hussain Mohamed Latheef had also proposed an amendment to the Presidential Elections Act.

MP Hussain proposed an amendment to raise the deposit fee presidential candidates are required to pay to the Elections Commission to MVR 100,000. The current fee is MVR 40,000.

The amendments will be in effect once approved by parliament, ratified by the President and submitted to the government gazette.

Preliminary debates on the amendments will take place at the next sitting.

The ruling party’s amendments to the Presidential Elections Act comes ahead of the this year’s presidential elections, to be held on September 23.