Thinadhoo Mayor Questioned by Police Over Alleged Population Fraud

Thinadhoo City Mayor Saud Ali was questioned by police for roughly an hour and a half on Monday following a private complaint alleging the island’s population figures were inflated to secure city status.

Saud was summoned to the Thinadhoo Police Station, where officers recorded his statement before releasing him.

The controversy surrounding Thinadhoo’s status stems back to August 30, 2023, when the previous administration officially designated it a city—a decision upheld by the current government. However, critics quickly alleged that the island had fallen short of the legal 10,000-resident threshold and that official figures had been rigged to make up the difference.

Lawyer Ahmed Raaghib previously petitioned the High Court to strip Thinadhoo of its city status over the matter, but the court threw out the case.

More recently, Thinadhoo North MP Saudulla Hilmy lodged complaints with both the Majlis and the Local Government Authority (LGA) seeking to revoke the status. Hilmy claimed that LGA and Department of National Registration (DNR) records show Thinadhoo’s actual population does not even reach 8,000. He alleged that the headcount was padded by adding residents from other islands, duplicating names on the register, and listing deceased individuals as living citizens.