across the political spectrum. These include the president's Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP), the Adalat Party, the Islamic Democratic Party and others, with more political groups and alliances being formed all the time. The years 2005/2006 were also good years for the reform process, with fundamental changes seen across several areas of governance and human rights, and more promised for the future. In addition to the setting up of political parties, the print media attained greater freedom and there was greater tolerance of public assemblies. The period also saw the Westminster House talks wherein the government and the opposition sat together outside the Parliament for the first time to negotiate moves to speed up reforms. The government also issued standing invitations to the UN human rights special mandates experts to visit the Maldives and acceded to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). A police integrity commission and a judicial services commission were also promised. That said, many of these changes were not, and have not since, been fully implemented. A clear example of this was the promised separation of the judiciary from executive control which has not been effectively implemented. The police integrity commission is not an effective watchdog. The promise of right to information has not been delivered, while subtle forms of control over the media are emerging, such as the withholding of vital government advertising contracts to opposition papers. The state television station TVM, Maldives' only television station, continues to provide lengthy coverage to the president, even to the extent of having a team dedicated solely to his activities, while gaining access for opposition stories has been, and remains, almost impossible. On 27 March 2006, the long awaited “Roadmap to Democracy” was published, which marked out a clear timetable for the reform process. This was an important publication because it laid out for all to see, the aims and ambitions of the programme. Sadly the timetable set out has already been missed, with several key reforms having already been delayed and the constitution still incomplete almost a year after the original deadline. One of the reasons for this is the relative speed of change and the inexperience of the constitutional assembly and other institutions at dealing with this kind of allencompassing reform. There have been many delays simply due to lack of quorum in the constitutional assembly. The number of bills that have to be passed to implement change is also much larger than usual for the People's Majlis, which has been one factor in the slow progress. Perhaps more importantly, in both the constitutional assembly and the Parliament there have been many delays caused by fierce arguments from both the DRP and the opposition with a frequent unwillingness to compromise. Some of this confrontation has been caused by the president's own backtracking; apparently he has now decided he wishes to remain in power. Clear examples of this are the protracted debates on the form of government to be adopted for the future,
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which threatened Gayoom's own future. A further example of this has been the argument over whether the constitution is “new” or “amended”. The process initially began as an amendment, as was made clear when the president convened the constitutional assembly in 2004. The argument is important because if the constitution is amended then Gayoom, under the term limitation rules, cannot stand again as he has already been in power for six terms. If, however, it is a new constitution then he can. This point has been a source of bitter dispute between the DRP and the MDP, and has also established the president's attitude to the process. In August 2007, the referendum on the future form of government took place. Although Gayoom had desired an Egyptian-style hybrid system, even within the government and the DRP, Gayoom was forced by the New Maldives to concede his position and to support a US style presidential system with two-term limitation. In a rare show of unity, however, the old guard united against the New Maldives in the constitutional assembly in June 2006 and took the issue to a public referendum. More than one year was spent on this issue, given its fundamental importance to Gayoom's own future. Eventually, on 18 June 2007, Gayoom announced that he would seek a new term even if a presidential system was adopted. The referendum endorsed a presidential system and was a defeat for Gayoom's initial position, forcing him to backtrack on the offer of two-term limitation. On 19 August, however, Gayoom was quick to declare victory over the MDP who had campaigned for a prime ministerial style of government. It was the president's apparent lack of genuine commitment to change that eventually led Dr Saeed, along with colleague Mohamed Jameel, then justice minister, to resign from government on 5 August 2007. Dr Ahmed Shaheed, then foreign minister, resigned on 21 August 2007 stating that reform was being resisted by “a conservative guard within the parliament and cabinet”,10 a sentiment shared by all mentioned above. Free and Fair Elections The 2005 Majlis elections, which came before the introduction of political parties, were observed by a Commonwealth team who made a number of recommendations for the future—with a view to strengthening democratic institutions—particularly on Civil Service Reform, separation of powers and human rights. The Commonwealth has returned twice more to review the progress and after their most recent assessment, has noted several areas in which the government has yet to make changes necessary to ensure free and fair elections. l Despite pledges, the elections commission is still headed by a presidential
appointee. Ensuring independence of the commission will take time, starting to call into question the current election timetable. l An active, independent police integrity commission and judicial services commission have not been set up. l An independent civil service commission has been formed but large sections of
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