An anti-defection law is necessary: Nasheed

A regulation or law that prevents elected officials from ‘betraying’ the convictions of those that voted for them is necessary, says former president Mohamed Nasheed.

Speaking at an event Monday night to launch the campaign of a candidate contesting the Maldivian Democratic Party’s primary elections later this month, Nasheed said that individuals elected to parliament must not be allowed to switch to a party other than the one through which they were elected.

An anti-defection law was passed and ratified last year by parliamentarians aligned with the former ruling party, the Progressive Party of Maldives.

MP Riyaz Rasheed, then the deputy parliamentary group leader of the party, had submitted a motion to repeal it after President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih was elected. The motion passed with over 30 lawmakers voting in favour.

The anti-defection law was introduced as per a Supreme Court ruling on floor-crossing, which states that according to the political parties act a parliamentarian that loses membership of the party they were elected to parliament through will also lose their seat.

The law has been criticized as a political attempt to bar lawmakers that defected from PPM to the Joint Opposition. The law was back dated to take effect from a period before its passing and resulted in 12 lawmakers losing their seats.