The politics of the Maldives take place in the framework of a presidential representative democratic republic,whereby the President is the Head of Government. Executive power is exercised by the government. The President heads the executive branch and appoints the Cabinet;like many presidential democracies,each member of the cabinet need to be approved by the Parliament. The President,along with their pick for vice president,is directly elected by the denizens to a five-year term by a secret ballot. Once in office,they could be re-elected to a second 5-year term,which is the limit allowed by the Constitution. The current President of the Maldives is Mohamed Muizzu,when his predecessor,Ibrahim Mohamed Solih lost the 2023 Maldivian presidential election. Nasheed reportedly resigned involuntarily to forestall an escalation of violence,and was placed in jail,before being forced into exile,from which he eventually returned.
The Maldives has remained an independent nation throughout its recorded history,save for a brief spell of Portuguese occupation in the mid-16th century. From 1887 to 1965,the country was a British protectorate while retaining full internal sovereignty. At its independence in 1965,the Maldives joined the United Nations on 20 September.
Maumoon Abdul Gayoom is a Maldivian politician who served as President of the Maldives and dictator from 1978 to 2008. After serving as transport minister,he was nominated president by the People's Majlis and succeeded Ibrahim Nasir in 1978. During his tenure the Maldives would become like an autocratic state where freedoms in the capital of Maléwere severely repressed and political opponents and protesters arrested. Often being labelled a dictator by other countries. Maumoon's tenure was marked by autocratic absolute rule,reduction in freedoms,increase in state corruption,increase in poverty as well as human rights violations and silencing of political opponents,employing torture,forced confessions,and politically motivated killings.
Ahmed Shafeeq Ibrahim Moosa,also known as Sappé,is a Maldivian editor-in-chief and politician who served as the first Envoy for Science and Technology to be appointed by the first democratically elected president of the Maldives,Mohamed Nasheed. He was appointed to his position on 11 March 2009 and resigned from the Maldivian government on 9 February 2012,soon after President Nasheed's government was allegedly overthrown by the incumbent President Mohammed Waheed Hassan two days earlier. Moosa is amongst those who campaigned for democracy and human rights which led to the end of the 30-year rule of Gayoom in November 2008. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of the news website Dhivehi Observer.
Mohamed Nasheed GCSK,also known as Anni,is a Maldivian politician and activist who served as president of the Maldives from 2008 until his resignation in 2012. A founding member of the Maldivian Democratic Party,he subsequently served as the 19th speaker of the People's Majlis from May 2019 until his resignation in November 2023. He is the first democratically elected president of the Maldives and the only president to resign from office. He is currently a member of The Democrats.
Ahmed Thasmeen Ali,leader of Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party is a Maldivian MP,philanthropist and a businessman. Thasmeen started his career as a civil servant and after venturing into politics he was elected to Peoples Majlis from Baa Atoll and later he served in Maldives President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom's cabinet and was his running mate in the first multiparty election held in the Maldives in 2008.
Hassan Saeed was Attorney General of the Republic of Maldives from November 11,2003,to August 5,2007. He is the current managing partner of Chambers Inn and the Managing Director of Premier Property Pvt Ltd.
Dr. Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik is a Maldivian politician who served as president of the Maldives from 7 February 2012 to 17 November 2013,having succeeded to the office following the resignation of President Mohamed Nasheed,under whom he served as vice president. He had previously worked as a news anchor,a United Nations official with UNICEF,UNDP and UNESCO,and a member of the Maldivian Parliament.
Qasim Ibrahim,also known as Burumaa Qasim is a Maldivian politician,business magnate and philanthropist. As the chairman and founder of the Villa Group,he is one of the country's wealthiest businessmen,with a net worth of around 9.63 billion MVR
Ahmed Shaheed is a Maldivian diplomat,politician and professor. On 24 March 2016,he was appointed for the sixth year running as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Shaheed is also the Chairperson of the Geneva-based international human rights think-tank,Universal Rights Group,which was launched in January 2014. He now lives in England,as Visiting Professor of Human Rights Practice at the University of Essex.
Parliamentary elections were held in the Maldives on 9 May 2009.
Maldives–Pakistan relations are the foreign relations between Pakistan and the Maldives.
Ilyas Hussain Ibrahim is a Maldivian politician. He was an official in the Ministry of Atolls Development from 1990 to 2004,then a member of the Special Majilis (parliament) representing A.DH Atoll from 2004 to 2008. Between 2008 and 2013 he was Deputy Minister or Minister of State for Immigration and Emigration,Housing and Environment,and then Defense and National Security.
The Cabinet of the Maldives is the most senior level of the executive branch of the Government of the Maldives. It is made up of the President,the Vice President,Attorney General and the Ministers.
Visam Ali is a former High Commissioner of the Maldives to Malaysia. She was a Maldivian Member of Parliament representing Raa Atoll,Maduvvaree legislative district for the 18th sitting of Majlis of the Maldives.
The 2011–2013 Maldives political crisis began as a series of peaceful protests that broke out in the Maldives on 1 May 2011. They would continue,eventually escalating into the resignation of President Mohamed Nasheed in disputed circumstances in February 2012. Demonstrators were protesting what they considered the government's mismanagement of the economy and were calling for the ouster of President Nasheed. The main political opposition party in the country,the Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party led by the former president of the country Maumoon Abdul Gayoom accused President Nasheed of "talking about democracy but not putting it into practice." The protests occurred during the Arab Spring.
Husnu Al Suood born in Meedhoo is a Justice of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Maldives since 8 December 2019. He was the Attorney General of the Maldives from June 2009 to August 2010. He served as the Chief Judge of the Civil Court and as a member of the Judicial Service Commission of Maldives. He also served as a member of the National Human Rights Commission of the Maldives from 2003 to 2005. As a member of the Special Majlis Suood participated in drafting the current constitution of the Republic of Maldives.
Abdulla Sodiq was the first mayor of Addu City,Maldives. He was elected mayor in February 2011 for a three-year term as mandated by the newly instated Decentralization Act. He was reelected on February 1,2014. His tenure ended in 2021 and succeeded by the current mayor Ali Nizar.
A political crisis in the Maldives intensified on after President Abdulla Yameen decided to disobey the Supreme Court order to release 9 political prisoners and reinstating 12 parliament members which will give the opposition control of the chamber and potentially paving the way for Yameen's impeachment.
Dr. Ahmed Abdulla Didi is the 4th Chief Justice of the Maldives,served from June 28,2018,till December 8,2019.
