President Muizzu Extends Republic Day Greetings as Opposition Urges Defence of Constitutional Rights

President Dr Mohamed Muizzu has extended warm greetings and felicitations to the Maldivian public on the occasion of the nation’s 58th Republic Day, leading official messages marking the historic transition from monarchy to republican governance.

In a public message shared on Today, President Muizzu offered his warmest greetings and best wishes to all Maldivian citizens as the country observed the national holiday, which commemorates the formal establishment of the Maldives’ Second Republic on 11 November 1968.

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The anniversary also prompted reflections from key political figures on the state of democratic governance and the separation of powers. 

Former President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih stressed that in a republican system, all state authority is derived directly from the people and held as a sacred public trust. Republic Day, Solih noted, serves as a vital reminder of this responsibility, calling on the nation to renew its collective resolve to uphold the foundational values and principles of democratic rule.

Former Vice President Faisal Naseem also extended felicitations to the public, while delivering a firm critique of the current political climate and warning against the erosion of basic liberties. 

Faisal observed that despite possessing a modern constitution designed to empower the electorate, citizens today keenly feel deliberate efforts to curtail their rights and undermine the powers vested in them by the supreme charter.

Emphasising that sovereignty originates from the public and must permanently remain with them as enshrined in law, the former vice president cautioned against weaponising ordinary legislation to strip away fundamental freedoms and enforce subservience. 

Amending statutory laws that originally granted liberties to the people, only to then demand compliance under the banner of the law, constitutes a direct challenge to constitutional rights, he argued, urging citizens to actively defend the protections guaranteed to them.

Faisal further noted that neither the judiciary, Parliament, nor the executive belongs to whoever holds office, describing each branch as a public institution entrusted to state actors who bear an obligation to preserve its integrity. 

He called on all leaders to operate strictly within constitutional bounds and firmly uphold the rule of law.

Republic Day is observed annually across the Maldives on 11 November to mark the historic abolition of centuries-old monarchical rule and the birth of the Second Republic under its first president, Ibrahim Nasir. 

The country had earlier declared its First Republic on 1 January 1953 under President Mohamed Amin Didi, before returning briefly to a sultanate. Representing the most consequential shift in the nation’s system of governance, Wednesday’s observance marks 58 years since the founding of the modern republic.