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Main-ruling MDP adopts amended constitution

The proposed amendments to the main-ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP)'s Constitution have been passed.

Eleven amendments were proposed to the MDP Constitution, and additional amendments were later proposed at the party's fourth Congress. The votes on the amendments were taken at Sunday evening's Congress session.

The amendments voted on included those moved by MDP's President and Parliament Speaker Mohamed Nasheed and President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih.

Nasheed proposed the establishment of a think tank to operate within the MDP. The amendment received 915 votes in its favor and three against it.

President Solih proposed to keep the existing rules for appointing branches of Congress. Nine hundred and one members voted in favor of the amendment, while only one member voted against it.

In addition, the President also proposed that the post of Vice-President and Vice-Chairpersons of the MDP should be appointed with the consent of the party's National Assembly and that a member of the Women's Development Committee should be included in the Congress. The amendments were also passed by a majority in Congress.

While Nasheed had submitted a resolution seeking constitutional changes to transition the Maldives government from a presidential to a parliamentary governance system, the amendment was withdrawn at the last minute. Therefore, a vote was not taken on the matter.

Before the vote on the amendments to the MDP Constitution, the first vote was on how to vote for the constitutional amendments. The majority of the voters approved a general vote instead of a secret ballot.

Voting was conducted by pointing the barcode on the pass issued to the MDP congress participants to a scanner that reads the barcode. Screens were installed in the Congress Hall so that the results could be seen immediately as the barcode was read.

After the adoption of the MDP Constitution with amendments, President Solih, Speaker Nasheed, and MDP's Chairman Fayyaz Ismail addressed the congress participants. After that, the fourth Congress of the MDP was officially announced as over.