The Supreme Court of the Maldives has ruled that there is no legal ground to obstruct the public referendum scheduled for Saturday. This referendum is being conducted to seek public opinion on whether the President should ratify the 8th Amendment to the Constitution, which proposes holding presidential and parliamentary elections on the same day.
The constitutional challenge was brought before the Supreme Court by lawyers Aik Ahmed Easa and Ibrahim Shiyam. The petitioners sought an injunction to halt the vote, contending that the specific question posed in the referendum was unconstitutional.
Delivering the verdict on the constitutional matter, Chief Justice Abdul Ghanee Mohamed stated that neither the Constitution nor existing laws prescribe a specific format or manner in which questions must be formulated for a public referendum. The Chief Justice further noted that the current framing of the question cannot be deemed a violation of constitutional principles. Consequently, a bench of five judges unanimously ruled that there are no grounds to stop the scheduled referendum.
