Maldives' 33% Reserved-Seat Quota for Women in Local Councils (2019 Decentralisation Act Amendment)

Before 2019, women held only about 6% of seats on Maldivian island and city councils, and no legal mechanism guaranteed women's political representation at the local level.

The eighth amendment to the Decentralisation Act, passed in 2019, reserved 33% of island and city council seats for women, to take effect from the next local council election.

In the local council elections held in April 2021, the first under the new rule, women won 389 of 981 seats — about 40% of the total, exceeding the 33% reserved-seat floor. The Elections Commission of Maldives' official results were independently corroborated by IFES's election analysis and Maldives Independent reporting.

Gains are numeric rather than fully embedded in decision-making power: no woman has yet presided over a local council, and Women's Development Committees often lack formal decision-making authority, stable funding or control over priority sectors. The Maldives has no gender quota for its national parliament, where women held just 5% of seats and made up only 11.6% of candidates in the 2024 parliamentary election.