The Constitution was amended to prevent a no-confidence vote against President Mohamed Muizzu from being successfully orchestrated in parliament, the spokesperson for the opposition Democrats party, Imthiyaz Fahumy, said on Wednesday. The Democrats, ostensibly led by former President Mohamed Nasheed, has no Members of Parliament (MPs) representing the party in the current 20th session of the legislative assembly.

“Look at the changes in the Constitution, I don’t know if the President is afraid that they might take a no-confidence vote. For example, PNC [People’s National Congress] members might talk about their dissatisfactions from time to time, expressing their disappointment. There is the possibility that when such conversations are being had, they [PNC MPs] will be open to being signatories [to a proposed no-confidence motion]… As such, the President can sack anyone who signs from the party, and then they lose their seat. The Constitution is being turned inside out. There is no way to take a no-confidence vote on the President [now]. The [proper] process, and the Constitution, is being obliterated,” Fahumy said while speaking at a rally held by the party on Wednesday.

The Constitution provides for a no-confidence vote if the people are unsatisfied with the President, Fahumy said.

“He has broken that [tenet] with the [most recent] amendment to the Constitution. This is not something we the Democrats nor the citizens of the Maldives will accept,” the former MP said.

All the powers of the state of the Maldives are derived from, and remain with, the citizens, he said, quoting Article 4 of the Constitution while going on to contend that the amendments have now concentrated power in the hands of the President.

The Democrats are ready to take to the streets if need be to bring the power back into the hands of the people, Fahumy said.

“Hopefully, the power of the people of the Maldives will be restored to them,” he said.

While the amendments which were passed on the 20th of this month were undertaken within an extremely truncated timeline, former MP Ali Hussain filed a petition at the Supreme Court seeking to quash the changes — the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) and the Democrats are seeking to join the action that is set to be adjudicated by the apex court.

Amendments to Article 73 stipulate that an MP will lose their seat if they resign from, or are removed from, the political party through which they were elected—and similarly, that an independent MP joining a political party will also forfeit their seat.

Around 10 MPs who, while contesting as independents, won seats in the 20th Session of Parliament signed up to the President’s PNC party even before being sworn in. However, the amendments, which have now come into effect, will not have those members lose their seats, seeing as they do not apply to members who swapped political party status before Parliament went into session.