The Malé City Council has expressed concern with the Ministry of Housing and Infrastructure being given authority over residence registries, which is statutorily the mandate of local government councils.

This change in authority was announced by the President’s Office in a circular this week, that reveals that as per an amendment to policy, President Abdulla Yameen is to again set the mandate of local government councils.

All powers and authorities taken from city, atoll, and island councils will now be vested with relevant ministries, the circular said.

In response to this, the Malé City Council released a statement expressing concern over this, where it said that making changes to the mandates of councils is detrimental to their operations.

Further, the statement says that statutory powers – in this case vested in the council by the 2010 Decentralization Act – cannot be taken away without a parliamentary vote.

In this regard, the council expressed that it believes the President’s Office and incumbent President Abdulla Yameen has appeared to act outside legal ambit.