Social Housing Rent, By-Election Ballot, New Quarantine Rule

Welcome to the inaugural edition of our weekly briefing, a concise roundup of the news from the past week. 

Thursday, December 30

In the first high-level visit since the current administration took office three years ago, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is due to arrive in the Maldives on 7 January, it was announced. The 50th anniversary of Sino-Maldives diplomatic relations will be commemorated during the state councillor’s visit.

Thursday, December 30

The Elections Commission assigned ballot numbers for the upcoming parliamentary by-election in the Komandoo constituency. Candidates vying for the vacant seat are Mohamed Rashid from the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party, Moosa Fathuhy from the opposition Progressive Party of Maldives, and Abdul Hannaan Idrees from the newly-formed Maldives National Party. The by-election is scheduled for 5 February. MDP MP for Komandoo Hussain Waheed passed away on 14 December after battling cancer. He was 53 years old.

Wednesday, December 29

Newly reclaimed land was officially handed over to the Maafushi island council. Some 26 hectares were reclaimed as a separate island to be connected via a bridge to Maafushi, an island famed for pioneering guesthouse tourism 12 years ago. The council plans to award 500 plots of land from the artificial island.

Wednesday, December 29

Water and sewerage projects were commissioned for the last 23 inhabited islands without access to sanitation and clean water.

Former MP Anara Naeem, the only lawmaker elected from the Adhaalath Party, resigned from the religious conservative party.

Tuesday, December 28

The Maldives Aviation Academy – a joint venture between national carrier Maldivian airlines and the Maldives National University – officially opened.  The new school in Addu City’s Gan airport is managed by a Czech Republic institution. A flying school previously operated by the Asian Academy of Aeronautics in the southernmost atoll was mired in controversy and closed with more than 100 students unable to complete their studies. Former AAA students are prioritised in enrolments for the first 30-student batch at the new academy.

Tuesday, December 28

Some 314.82kg of drugs in police custody were burned in the presence of the media and one member of the public. The street value of the drugs was approximately MVR316 million (US$20 million), bringing the total destroyed since 2018 to 1801.41kg.

Monday, December 27

More than MVR15 million (US$972,700) has been spent on inquiry commissions formed by President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih upon assuming office in November 2018, a right to information request revealed. The presidential commission on deaths and disappearances, mandated with investigating unresolved murders, cost MVR5.4 million in salaries and other expenses. The presidential commission on corruption and asset recovery, which was set up to independently probe a multi-million dollar embezzlement scheme, spent MVR9.9 million.

President Solih meets members of the asset recovery commission

Monday, December 27

The Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital in Malé is using the emergency room to treat children after its 32-bed children’s ward was filled to capacity, an IGMH spokesperson told the media. The government-run tertiary hospital is one of only two in the Greater Malé region where charges are fully covered by the Aasandha health insurance scheme.  

Sunday, December 26

President Solih deferred rent from Hiya flats for a further three months. The decision came after protests and pleas to extend the four-month grace period for completing interior work. The previous administration’s Chinese-funded 7,000-unit social housing project in Hulhumalé did not include finishing work such as doors and floor tiles. The monthly rent for the two-bedroom apartments is MVR8,500 (US$550). The rent deferment is expect to cost a loss of US$11 million to the Housing Development Corporation, a state-owned company tasked with urbanising manmade islands near the capital. 

Hulhumalé

Sunday, December 26

In response to the spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant, the Health Protection Agency reintroducedmandatory 14-day quarantine for unvaccinated Maldivians and expatriates returning from overseas with effect on 26 December. Fully vaccinated citizens and diplomatic or work visa holders must undergo a PCR test between the 5th and 7th day from the date of arrival. A travel ban imposed in late November on tourists from seven southern African countries was meanwhile lifted. All tourists are granted on-arrival visas with a negative PCR test result.

The suspension of Judge Hussain Faiz Rashad was lifted after more than a month. The judicial watchdog suspended him after a conversation allegedly among judges who sentenced former president Abdulla Yameen – with apparent admissions of facing undue influence from the government – was leaked online. Contrary to initial findings by the Maldives police, a forensic analysis carried out in Malaysia determined that it was not his voice in the recording, the Judicial Service Commission explained

President Solih presented National Awards for Public Service to 106 public servants at a function held to mark National Unity Day, which is observed annually in remembrance of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

State Electricity Company (STELCO) chairman Mohamed Rasheed passed away. Rasheed joined STELCO in 1971 and went on to serve as engineer, deputy director, deputy managing director and CEO.