The Democrats launched the party's "Decentralization Change" policy on Tuesday night, pledging financial assistance and housing to migrants from Male' to other islands.
The Democrats, formed under the leadership of Speaker Mohamed Nasheed, held policy launch events on more than 50 islands.
The main goals of the policy are to reduce congestion in the Male' region and to encourage the distribution of the population across other regions. But details on providing housing and the allowance were not revealed.
In addition to offering a "settlement allowance," the Democrats policy proposes the development of urban centers and 'Smart Cities' across the country. But the islands or regions designated for development were not revealed.
The purpose of the urban centers is to relocate the population gathered in the Male' region along with jobs, buildings and government powers.
The policy proposes determining in the constitution the jurisdiction of islands and atolls to ensure ownership of natural resources as well as rules for councils to incur debt.
Proposals to empower councils include introducing legal procedures for removing members in the middle of the council's term.
Proposals for empowering councils
- Allowing councils to take sovereign debt up to 60 percent of the island's GDP
- Allocating 100 percent of green tax collected from inhabited islands to the Green Fund of the island
- Allocating 50 percent of green tax collected from resorts in the atoll to the Green Fund of the atoll
- Increasing share allocated to councils from land rent of resorts and industrial islands from 40 percent to 50 percent
- Allocating 50 percent of the goods and services income earned by the state from an island's businesses to the island
- Transferring ownership of utility infrastructure to councils
The Democrats also proposed changes to the composition of parliament to reduce the number of MPs to 76 from 87 at present.
Under the Democrats' policy, 55 MPs would be elected from Male' and the atolls and eight seats would be reserved for women with the country divided into four regions (north, south, east and west), two seats to represent persons with disabilities and 11 seats based on the proportion of votes won by parties.
The Democrats proposed specifying the qualifications of MPs in law for the first time. The policy also includes procedures for voters to remove MPs through a referendum.
