Speaker of Parliament and Leader of Jumhooree Party (JP), Qasim Ibrahim, has said that Central system of parliamentary governance cannot be implemented and that the claim is empty.

Qasim said this while speaking at special event presenting JP tickets to Parliamentary hopefuls. He reiterated that a President within a central system of governance is an additional cost and simply a name on a board. Qasim noted that the country will be run by the Prime Minister within this system.

JP leader Qasim said that the President carries no responsibilities within this system. He said that a small Parliamentary constituency can chose to appoint a Prime Minister within this system. Qasim said that this few number of people could be a constituency with a small portion of the Maldivian population or an even smaller constituency of Male’, consisting of approximately 3000 to 4000 people. He added that when the political party, decides that an official will become the Prime Minister, the person ascends to the position. Qasim said that, as such, it is not required of a person in the position of the Prime Minister to consider the condition of the people. He said that the matter is therefore nonsensical and that the central system of governance cannot be implemented. He added that the current claims that the system will be implemented in the future is simply empty.

Qasim said that Jumhooree Party seeks to maintain the Republican system in Maldives and that going from a Presidential system to a Central government system will reap no benefits.

The Speaker of Parliament said that the Parliament has failed to hold Ministers accountable for their actions. He reiterated that the consequences of one political party winning the majority at Parliament has already been seen.