Mohamed Mahir Easa has been appointed as the vice president of the Local Government Authority (LGA).

The authority announced this via Twitter, adding that he was elected during a vote held at the 10th meeting held on Thursday.

A special legislation to ensure the continued functioning of the decentralised government was passed along with the constitutional amendment to extend the current term of local councils until new councillors can be elected, in early June. The board of the LGA was reconstituted on June 2, and will remain in place until local council elections are held and new councillors take office.

The local council elections in the Maldives have been postponed due to the Covid-19 crisis.

President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih appointed seven members to the reconstituted LGA board, on June 10. This was done under the authority granted to the president by Article 7(A) of special legislation to ensure the continued functioning of decentralized government.

The seven members appointed to the board are; Minister of Home Affairs, Imran Abdulla; Special Advisor to the President, Mohamed Shihaab; Minister at the President’s Office, Ahmed Sameer; Minister of State for Home Affairs, Mohamed Mahir Easa; Minister of State for Finance, Ahmed Shareef; and Deputy Minister of National Planning, Housing and Infrastructure, Fathmath Niuma. Fathmath Afshan Latheef was appointed as the Chief Executive Officer.

President Solih appointed the home minister as the chairman of the board, as per Article 140 of the Constitution which states that ‘a cabinet member should be responsible for overseeing bodies established by the legislature or executive (with the exception of constitutionally-mandated independent state bodies)’.