Parliamentarian Mohamed Aslam has said the Decentralisation Chapter of the Constitution is being amended to better and expand the services provided by the councils.
Speaking at the parliament, Parliamentarian Aslam said the revisions to the 8th Chapter of the constitution was proposed after detailed research. The parliamentarian said electing the 660 councillors every three years is a huge cost the government bears. Aslam further said the three-year term for councillors do not allow them to run the development projects they need. Thus, he proposed to extend the term of councillors to 5 years.
The government and the opposition parliamentarians have unanimously supported the bill although slight changes were suggested by several parliamentarians.
In addition to stretching the term for a 5-year period, Parliamentarian Aslam also proposed to allocate 33% of all local council seats for women. He also suggested to elect mayors of city councils and presidents of other councils by a public vote.
The new amendments suggest formulating all atoll councils with the presidents of island councils, as opposed to the current practice of electing a different council for each atoll.
Speaker of Parliament Mohamed Nasheed has targeted to pass the bill by November 13.