The amendments brought to the Decentralization Act of Maldives, increasing the terms of local councils from three to five years has been ratified by President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih.
The initial bill presented to the Parliament was passed with two amendments, with the first amendment being that the new amendments shall take effect from the date of being gazetted after ratification.
The second amendment was that any members of island, atoll and city councils would be elected in a local council election held after the amendments take effect.
While the current local council terms are of a period of three years, the ratification and gazetting of the amendments mean that the council members elected in the next local council election to be held on April 4,2020 would serve for a term of five years.
The amendment was passed by the Parliament on 3 December, 2019 with a total of 69 votes.
