Maldives should adapt constitutional changes that forms a prime ministerial office, a position that should be given to incumbent President Abdulla Yameen, says pro-government MP Ahmed Nihan.

MP Nihan, the ruling party’s parliamentary group leader, said this at a campaign rally held on Wednesday, adding that President Yameen should be given a 30-year term.

The lawmaker said in his speech, which he gave in his native Huvadhoo dialect, that the Maldivian constitution does not account for a prime ministerial term and that a ‘small amendment’ can have President Yameen – or ‘whoever else deserving’ – appointed to such a position.

In his speech, Nihan insinuated that President Yameen should be given this position on the basis that he has provided the Maldives with ‘unprecedented development and progress’, as he described it. This notion was supported by the president’s recent political ally, and current vice-presidential candidate Dr. Mohamed Shaheem Ali Saeed.

Dr. Shaheem, in addition to claiming that the ‘era of progress’ Yameen ushered has earned him a 30-year term, said that he would ask Yameen to run for a third term once his second his completed.

While MP Nihan, one of President Yameen’s staunchest supporters in parliament, advocates President Yameen being given a prime ministerial title, Maldives has a presidential democracy.