Update Country Report Maldives 21 Nov 2019

Event

The chief justice, Ahmed Abdulla Didi, and a senior judge from the Supreme Court bench, Adam Mohamed Abdulla, were dismissed from service after a majority of lawmakers voted in favour of their removal on November 18th.

Analysis

The two former judges were being investigated by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC), the country's parliament-appointed judicial watchdog, over allegations of ethical misconduct. The commission found that there were 17 instances where Supreme Court rulings had "violated the constitution or usurped powers of the executive, parliament, lower courts and independent bodies". On November 13th it recommended that both judges be removed from the Supreme Court bench. A parliamentary vote was subsequently held, during which 69 members of parliament voted in favour of the judges' dismissal; most of these were members of the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), which holds a substantial majority in the 87-seat chamber.

The beleaguered opposition has accused the government of trying to interfere with the independence of the judiciary. It has accused the ruling MDP of using its parliamentary majority to remove the judges and believes the process to be unconstitutional. The government has stressed that the move is an important step towards overhauling the judiciary and implementing reform-a pledge made during campaigning ahead of the presidential election in September 2018.

The judiciary has long been constrained by political interference. Although the president, Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, and his government might be able to achieve some reform, it will be impossible to untangle the political and the judicial completely. Moreover, the MDP's over-arching majority in parliament has tilted the balance of legislative power significantly towards the ruling party and raises the risk of it being misused. The speed of the dismissals, despite questions over the JSC's constitutional capacity to take such action, will intensify these concerns.