First Parliamentary Sitting of the Year with Presidential Address Scheduled for Feb 5

The first sitting of Parliament for this year, during which President Dr Mohamed Muizzu will deliver the presidential address, will be held on 5 February, the Parliament has announced.

The opening session is set to begin at 9:00 am.

While regular parliamentary sittings are scheduled to commence in the first week of February, two extraordinary sessions were convened earlier this month on 5 and 6 January. These sittings were held at the request of the ruling People’s National Congress (PNC) to deliberate on a proposed constitutional amendment bill and other related matters.

The proposed amendment seeks to merge presidential and parliamentary elections and to shorten the term of the current 20th Parliament. If approved, the bill will be put to a public referendum, which is planned to coincide with the local council elections in April.

The constitutional amendment bill was submitted by PNC parliamentary group leader and Inguraidhoo MP Ibrahim Falah. It is currently under review by the Judiciary Committee, which has opened the bill for public comment until 15 January.

Parliamentary sources have indicated that further extraordinary sessions are expected in the coming days in order to finalise the bill ahead of the official opening of the parliamentary year.

Parliament went into recess on 3 December 2025 after completing its legislative work for last year.

Last year, changes were made to the Parliament’s rules of procedure to move the start of the parliamentary session to January. The amendment, proposed by PNC members to allow a recess during the month of Ramadan, faced criticism and was later repealed.