News Desk
MALE’ — President Dr Mohamed Muizzu has removed the uninhabited island of Savaheli from the jurisdiction of Addu City Council, reassigning it under a presidential decree for tourism development purposes. The decision, issued under Decree No. 13/2026, was made using powers granted to the president under the Decentralisation Act to determine the jurisdictional boundaries of city and island councils.
The MDP condemned the move as a direct violation of the spirit of the Decentralisation Act and an act of political retaliation against Addu City, which returned the opposition party’s candidates by large margins in recent council elections. In a statement, the party said the decision was taken without any consultation with Addu residents and at a moment when the newly elected council was in the process of drafting the city’s five-year development plan, a legal obligation under the same decentralisation law the president cited to justify the move.
“The president’s power to determine jurisdictional boundaries is not a power to be used however he sees fit,” the party said, adding that any changes to a city’s land use and development plans must, under the law, be made in consultation with residents.
Former MDP Chairperson Fayyaz Ismail was more direct. Writing on X, he said the removal of Savaheli was designed to kill off tourism development in Addu and specifically to strangle the guesthouse businesses growing in Feydhoo. The Addu City Council had already put the island out to tender, he said, with the intention of developing tourist facilities that would have given life to the Feydhoo tourism zone.
“This is the same as what happened with Hankede,” Fayyaz wrote, referring to another stalled project in Addu. “Savaheli was stopped for political reasons.” He said the government has spent three years ensuring that Addu residents do not benefit from local tourism, and that the only explanation for blocking a funded and planned project is that the government has no political support in Addu.
“Stopping projects like this is damage done to generations,” he said.
The government has not publicly responded to the criticism.