The People’s Majilis is the unicamerallegislative body of the Maldives. The Majlis has the authority to enact, amend and revise laws, except the Constitution of the Maldives. The Majlis is composed of 87 members as of 2019. Each year on the last Thursday of February, the Majlis is opened by the President of the Maldives. During the opening ceremony, the president outlines his policies and achievements in his presidential term. The annual budget of the state is also passed by the Majlis.
A council was set up by Sultan Muhammad Shamsuddeen III to draft the constitution of the Maldives on 9 March 1931. The council completed and implemented the constitution on 22 December 1932. This constitution was the basis for the formation, of the first ever Majlis of the Maldives. The meetings of this Majlis were held in the “Hakura Ganduvaru”. The first president or the speaker of the Majlis was Al Ameer Mohammed Farid Didi. Maldives was then ruled by a sultan and the advent of the new constitution was seen as a threat to the sultanate. Thus, mobs were instigated against the constitution and it was publicly torn up. Since then the constitution of the Maldives has been revised a number of times.
