Home Minister Azleen Ahmed has urged the public to vote for government aligned councillors in the upcoming Local Council Elections.
Stating that the decentralization process was a revolutionary step in the Maldives, the minister pointed out that decentralization opened a door for the public to be involved in island, atoll or city level decisions regarding their local constituencies.
"My honest advice to the public is for them to elect councillors who have aligned themselves with the government and are willing to work tirelessly in the pursuit of the rights of their local constituencies," the minister stated.
While noting that the local councils were an important layer of government set to interact with the public, the minister insisted that the duty of local councils were to ensure that the level of service provided to their respective constituencies were specifically designed to be the most effective.
"This nation can only be sculpted with the involvement of the local population. The councils' decisions must be taken after consultation with the public. That is the only way to build up a truly responsible council," the Minister added.
The Minister declared that decentralized systems were only established in other nations after going through various steps, unlike the route taken to establish the system in Maldives. He stated that this had brought various challenges in the system and that efforts were being made to further improve the current system.
The Minister noted that various steps had been taken to enhance the councils since its inception over six years ago.
