President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu has ended his 12-hour and 38-minute press conference without disclosing the number of political appointees despite repeated questions from journalists.
The press conference began at 10:04 am at the President's Office on Saturday. A presentation was shown during the first session which ended at 12:06 pm.
The press conference resumed at 12:31 pm with Muizzu opening for questions from journalists. It continued until 3:15 pm and resumed at 3:50 pm after Asr prayer.
The session continued until 5:58 pm and halted for Maqrib prayer in the evening. It resumed again at 6:31 pm and took a break at 7:25 for Isha prayer.
The press conference started again from 7:46 pm until 10:19 pm. The last session was from 10:36 pm until 12:53 am.
The duration of the press conference
- First session (Presentation) - two hours and two minutes
- Question and Answer Part I - Two hours and 44 minutes
- Question and Answer Part II - Two hours and eight minutes
- Question and Answer Part 3 - 54 minutes
- Question and Answer Part 4 - Two hours and 33 minutes
- Question and Answer Part V - Two hours and 17 minutes
Muizzu spent a total of 12 hours and 38 minutes at the press conference out of which 10 hours and 36 minutes were spent answering questions from journalists.
Journalists from various outlets reiterated questions about the number of political appointees throughout the entire press conference.
But Muizzu responded each time that the figure is not available and that he will try to clarify it.
"I will share that figure with you in writing," he said.
The government has not disclosed the number of political appointees hired since Muizzu assumed office on November 17, 2023. But the opposition parties allege the number exceeds 3,000.
Muizzu pledged not to increase the number of political employees to more than 700.
Without disclosing the number of political employees, Muizzu claimed he had appointed enough political employees to carry out the government's 2,130 projects.
He said the government would propose an amendment to the law to specify how much of the budget can be used on political employees in the future.
According to official financial statistics, the amount spent on salaries and allowances from the state budget this year is MVR 400 million more compared to 2024.
The Finance Ministry's figures show that MVR 2.6 billion had been spent on salaries and allowances until March 20 this year.
In the same period last year, the amount spent on salaries and allowances was MVR 2.2 billion, indicating an increase of MVR 404 million this year.
At Saturday's press conference, Muizzu stated that the MVR 23 million per month is used from the government budget on political appointees.
