COLUMN | The MDP spent years campaigning for transparency, decentralisation and the public’s right to know. After its sweeping local council election victory, Mohamed Saif Fathih argues the party now has an opportunity – and an obligation – to put those principles into practice.
Reviewing the websites and social media accounts of every city council and the country’s five largest island councils, he found that none had published council decisions in the manner required by law. Most also do not livestream proceedings, leaving citizens without a reliable public record of how councillors voted or, in many cases, whether they voted at all.
With the MDP now controlling all five city councils and overseeing local governance for more than half the country’s population, Fathih argues that transparency, accountability and public access should become the norm, not the exception.
Read the latest column: https://maldivesindependent.com/by-saif-fathih/mdp-must-practice-what-it-preaches-on-council-transparency-e2ce
Saif Fathih is a columnist at the Maldives Independent and a former member of the Malé City Council for Galolhu North. With his educational background in communications, international studies and public policy, he previously worked as a journalist, editor and public policy advisor, with roles including senior policy director at the ministry of national planning and editor of Ocean Weekly Magazine. Saif began his career as a radio producer and presenter at Minivan Radio, writer for Minivan Daily, and translator for the British High Commission and the European Union Mission to Sri Lanka and the Maldives. He is also the host of Ithuru Vaahaka, the Maldives Independent podcast.
