Autocrat Nasheed’s control over the Judiciary is confirmed with the Supreme Court’s crony Judges decision to undermine the Constitution and rip off the Parliament’s power to perform checks and balance on Cabinet Appointments.

Maldives follows a Presidential system that people voted for when they decided in a referendum held in 2007 that it is the best system of governance for Maldives.
In all Presidential systems of the world the Parliament is responsible for performing checks and balances on the Ministerial appointments that the President makes. Even in the mighty United States the President has to go through the Congress approval process before appointing members to the Cabinet. The Constitution in every Presidential system provides the Parliament with the power to perform checks and balances on Ministerial appointments. This increases the accountability and transparency of the Cabinet Ministers that take the high stake responsibility of administration of the country and government through their ministries and departments. Therefore making sure that Ministers go through the Parliament approval process is a perfect way to make sure that they deliver to the people and take the country on right path in every necessary. This is the norm and culture followed in every country that follows the Presidential system. Even where Parliamentary systems are followed, where often the Cabinet Ministers are also members of the Parliament, they still provide the Parliament with the prerogative to perform such checks and balances on the Ministers to make sure they are ethical transparent and accountable in performing their job.
However in the Maldives currently with a, New Supreme Court Bench handpicked by the President filled with loyalists to save the President from blunder after blunder including the enmasse resignation of all the Cabinet Members and their re-appointment few days later; undermined the Maldives Constitution and stated that the Constitutional clause that gives the Parliament power to perform checks and balances on Ministerial appointments undermine the power of the President therefore will no
longer be followed by the Parliament.
There has been a pattern emerging in the Maldives; a move by the new President now referred by many as Dictator Nasheed to change the Maldives new found Party political system to a fast tracked Dictatorship. He is unstoppable in his selling of national assets to friends and loyalists, dismissal of Public Sector Staff to appoint loyalists, and get his Cabinet to resign enmasse in a PR stunt; then appoint them a few days later and get them to run the Ministries with iron hands for months without first getting the Parliament approval needed stipulated in the Constitution.
The President is hell-bent on keeping each and every one of the resigned Ministers and he has been buying time by engaging in one delaying tactic after the other in order to avoid them getting the Constitutional scrutiny and endorsement. In a very well executed plan he locked the Supreme Court and got rid of the Judges there to appoint an army of loyalists. Then he got his Attorney General whose job is in jeopardy if not approved by the Parliament; to challenge the Checks and Balance of Ministerial Appointments Clause of the Constitution, finally getting the newly employed loyalist Judges to pass today’s Judgment and the Supreme Court ruling by the crony Judges further diminished the powers of the Maldives Parliament.
The Parliament has lost its power to perform checks and balances on the Ministerial Appointments and the decision by the Supreme Court is intended to help the President carry on with his illegal unapproved Cabinet, although some of those Ministers in the current Cabinet engaged in corruption and scandals on a daily basis in a very public way. Rule of decree is the method adopted by the President and his Ministers, and he is further consolidating his Dictatorship, obsessed to hang onto power in a very hostile environment with citizens openly seeking his resignation in mass protests, almost on a daily basis due to poverty, deprivations, suppression of freedom and rights, lawlessness and murder.
The President in total control of the Executive; it has not been enough for him. So he acquired control of the Judiciary seeking to build the highly authoritarian system that we thought we left behind following the Political and Constitutional reform Process carried out by former President His Excellency Maumoon Abdul Gayoom . Controlling the Executive and Judiciary is not enough for him so he is decapitating the Parliament. It is a sad Day for Democracy and definitely for the Maldivian people as; today more than ever; it looks like the Democratic dreams of the Maldivian people are not meant to be.