Maldives · Constitution
Constitution of the Republic of Maldives
Ratified in August 2008, replacing the 1998 text and ending a long period of executive dominance. It provides for a directly elected President limited to two terms, a unicameral People's Majlis, and an independent judiciary headed by a new Supreme Court. Chapter 2 contains an extensive bill of rights subject to Article 16's limitation clause. Article 9(d) provides that a non-Muslim may not become a citizen, and Article 10 states that Islam is the state religion and that no law contrary to any tenet of Islam may be enacted.
The constitutional text
Ratified in August 2008, replacing the 1998 text and ending a long period of executive dominance. It provides for a directly elected President limited to two terms, a unicameral People's Majlis, and an independent judiciary headed by a new Supreme Court. Chapter 2 contains an extensive bill of rights subject to Article 16's limitation clause. Article 9(d) provides that a non-Muslim may not become a citizen, and Article 10 states that Islam is the state religion and that no law contrary to any tenet of Islam may be enacted.
Separation of powers
Unitary with a decentralised layer under the Decentralisation Act 2010: 21 atolls with elected atoll councils, plus island and city councils. Councils have limited revenue-raising and service delivery functions; the geography of roughly 190 inhabited islands makes administrative decentralisation a practical necessity rather than a constitutional division of sovereignty.
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