THE resorts for which the Maldives are famous may be havens of tranquillity, but Malé, the country’s capital city, is a chaotic place. In addition to the extreme density of the population and the frenzy of the traffic, Maldivian politics have become especially turbulent.
As MPs from the ruling party defected to the opposition, the government lost its majority in the Majlis, or parliament. It managed to cling to power first by getting some of the opposition ejected from the chamber, and later by deploying the army to prevent them from returning. The government has also rewritten the rules on no-confidence motions to shore up its position. The courts have helped by stripping some opposition MPs of their seats and by arrogating to themselves the final say on the impeachment of the president, in apparent contradiction of the constitution. One parliamentary session was even cancelled after someone lit a fire in the toilets.
Politics in the Maldives, an archipelago of 400,000...Continue reading
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