Nations are Devoid of Voids

These days there is a whole lot of scaremongering going on with claims that unless Presidential Elections are not completed by 10 October, the whole country will go into a Constitutional Void. This actually started when the Legal Reform Minister Nasheed thought up this idea as a tool to justify speeding up elections without following due process. And now, it looks like he has been caught up in his own propaganda, and has actually started to really believe this!

There is a bit of history to this. Way back in January/February, when the Transitional Chapter of the Constitution was being debated, and finally passed, I had been a lone voice in the Special Majlis, and in the drafting committee in saying that it would be extremely unwise to write into the constitution, a specific date by which the elections should be held. However, Nasheed gave assurances to the committee and the Majlis that the constitution would be ratified by early March. I argued that there would be a number of things to be done including a set of laws and regulations which would govern the elections and the institutions which would facilitate the elections, and that it would be impossible to meet a deadline of 10 October because it was unlikely that the President would ratify the Constitution in time for arrangements to be made for a free and fair election to take place. The assurances kept coming that that was not the case, and the President was just as keen, if not keener than us, to have a free and fair, multiparty election in 2008. I said that if he ratified it at all, it would not be before the 7th of August. Why this magical date of 7 August? Simply because if ratification passed beyond the 7th of August, the (then) Commissioner would have been compelled by virtue of the constitution to call for elections on the following Sunday (10th of August) under the Old system (i. e, public referendum for a single candidate). The President delayed until the last possible date. Ratification happened just as I thought it would.

When the work of the Majlis dragged on into May, and then June, I proposed again that we should get rid of the date and put in a period instead. By then we were in the final stages of reviewing the document. Nasheed agreed that we were going to have problems if we kept in this date, and I think he even did lobby with the President and other DRP heavies, but as usual, he lost the lobby. When I brought the issue up for decision in the Drafting Committee, Addu Shareef and Hussain Mohamed of DRP vehemently opposed and vetoed it. There was a counter proposal to extend the date to the 31st of October which I opposed and vetoed because that would simply have given just enough time to complete the farce. But I knew with Ramazan coming within this period, there was no hope of having even a reasonably fair election before mid November, and that time would be required to communicate the laws and details of the process to the public, which was a mandatory function for the Elections Commission, also enshrined into the constitution. Therefore, if a reasonable period was not prescribed, it was better to leave the date as was. This was the only avenue left for a lone voice, to allow the “loud voiced” majority to face the consequences of their narrow-minded, thoughtless and selfish actions.

Another factor that I considered was that once the Elections Commission was set up, and the relevant legislative framework was put in place, the EC would be in charge, and they would be making all the decisions. The President and the Legal Reform Minister would be watching from the sides, just like everyone else. They would not be able to issue directives to the EC regarding dates and so forth. That is why Nasheed is trying to put those directives into the law (Article 21 of the bill for Presidential Elections) and attempt to tie the hands of the EC. But as usual, he has forgotten that we now have a real constitution, and that any law which attempts to undermine principles laid out in the constitution is deemed void by the constitution, and could be challenged in the courts. The only hope they would have had is if the EC was willing to play along. But the announcement by the EC on Thursday night indicates that they are not.

So the only avenue left is to keep on crying out that anyone who says that a free and fair election cannot be held by 10th October is a hypocrite, is a self proclaimed Thomas Jefferson, is working for self interest, is a short sighted, power hungry politician, while those who are pushing for an unconstitutional elections process are of course patriotic statesmen. More on this topic on another occasion.


And of course, The Void. This silly argument that if we don’t complete the elections by the 10th of October, the country will be in a Constitutional Void and a Crisis just makes me laugh. The country was not in a legal void when the government denied legal representation for accused criminals in courts. Nor was it in a legal void when ordinary working people were denied their constitutional right for pension benefits. Nor was it in a legal void when citizens were denied the freedom of assembly and the freedom of association as per the constitution. The country went on. The country and the people will still go on. If Nasheed really believes that there will be a legal void, I CHALLENGE HIM TO OPENLY DECLARE THAT IF WE FAIL TO ELECT A PRESIDENT BY 10 OCTOBER, MAUMOON ABDUL QAYYOOM WILL HAVE NO LEGAL BASIS TO OCCUPY THE PRESIDENT’S OFFICE, AND THAT THE SPEAKER OF THE MAJLIS SHOULD ASSUME THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE PRESIDENT. If he doesn’t have the guts to say this, then he should stop his whimpering about Constitutional Voids, and let us get on with the work of building this nation. But my guess is, when the 10th of October passes with no election, it will be the Legal Reform Minister who will also be coming up with all the legal arguments for Qayyoom to continue in office, and how the Transitional Chapter is simply a “bridge which smoothens the process” and that of course there is continuity and contiguity of Qayyoom’s government.

I can understand the DRP position on this. What puzzles me is that MDP wants to hasten this election. Anni claims that we can’t have a free and fair election even if we take 20 years to do so as long as Qayyoom is in power. So why doesn’t the MDP work towards going into the “Void” Nasheed has created, and then mount a challenge on the legitimacy of Qayyoom’s continuance in office? They would then have the field clear of Qayyoom, and maybe Anni can then admit the possibility of a free and fair election.

Or is there an understanding that whether Qayyoom wins or Anni wins, it will be an MDRPA alliance government that will be in place?

Fact is, neither the DRP, nor the MDP wants to allow the people to make an informed decision.

There will be no Void. As Vitalstatistix would say, the sky will not fall on our heads. Maldivians went about their business before 1932, when we did not even have a constitution. They have survived the various “governments” and violations of the constitution by these governments for the past 76 years. I am sure they have the tenacity to carry on until the EC gets organized enough to have a decent election in this country.

Constitutional and Legal Voids, my foot. Try pulling the other one, too.