The Clerk of the National Assembly of Seychelles Mrs. Tania Isaac formed part of a delegation from the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) Headquarters who visited the People’s Majlis (Parliament) of Maldives from 12th to 16th February 2024. The aim of the visit was to support this Legislature’s self-assessment against the CPA Benchmarks. The delegation was headed by the Good Governance Project Manager from CPA Headquarters Mr. Fraser McIntosh.
During the visit, the delegation provided technical assistance to the Parliament by meeting with the Speaker of the People’s Majlis Hon. Mohamed Aslam, the Secretary-General of the People’s Majlis Ms. Fathimath Niusha, Members of Parliament, parliamentary staff, government officials, representatives of the Maldivian Electoral Commission, the Auditor General, and the civil society and media groups.
The assessment focused on elections, financial and budget oversight, engagement with the citizenry and press, privileges, petitioning, voting, natural justice, infrastructure, rules of procedure, professional development, among other pertinent topics.
Following the benchmarking visit, Mrs. Isaac remarked that “this opportunity has been a very informative and enriching experience for me and I thank CPA, supported with funding from the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), for including experienced Clerks of Parliament in this project. By providing technical assistance to the Maldives Parliament, I also sharpened by parliamentary knowledge and reflected on the status of the National Assembly of Seychelles in relation to these standards”.
In recent years, a total of 26 Commonwealth Parliaments have undertaken self-assessments against the updated Benchmarks. Currently, Seychelles is also keen to join with the aim of receiving technical assistance to strengthen the Seychelles Legislature.
