President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has ratified the eight amendment to the Local Governance Act that provides MVR 1.6 billion from the state budget to local councils.

The bill was ratified at the information conference for councilors. “Viyavathi Raajje” that began today organized by the President’s Office.

Along with empowering the councils to fund development projects, the amendment also made major changes to how councils are elected.

The amendment states that five councilors need to be elected for populations under 3,000 while seven members need to be elected for populations over 3,000. And for constituencies with a population between 10,000 and 30,000 people, the amendment requires six council members, ten members for populations between 30,000 and 60,000 and 18 councilors for populations over 60,000.

The amendment also reserves 33 percent of the councils for women.

And so, at constituencies with a population under 3,000 people, two of the five councilors have to be women while three of the seven members have to be women at constituencies with a population between 3,000 and 10,000 people.