The government has submitted a proposal to abolish Atoll Councils ahead of next year’s local council elections, alongside amendments to reduce the number of elected councillors and restructure local governance.
The proposed changes span the Constitution, the Local Council Election Act, and the Decentralization of Administrative Areas Act. If passed, the term “Atoll Council” will be removed from both laws, effectively dissolving the councils and eliminating the need to elect Atoll Council members.
Under the revised Decentralization Act, island councils will report directly to the Local Government Authority (LGA) instead of Atoll Councils. The number of councillors per council will be reduced to three, except in constituencies with populations exceeding 2,000, where five councillors will be elected.
The amendments also affect Women’s Development Committees (WDCs), aligning their membership count with the number of elected councillors. Committee chairpersons will be elected directly by residents of the respective island or city.
The government had previously announced its intention to abolish Atoll Councils on August 19 last year. President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu has publicly stated that the Atoll Council posts are redundant and pledged to eliminate them.
Local Government Minister Adam Shareef Umar echoed this view in a September interview with PSM’s Raajje Miadhu program, describing Atoll Councils as an unnecessary layer in the decentralization framework.
In addition to scrapping Atoll Councils, the President has also proposed reducing the size of island councils based on population thresholds.