Frequently Asked Questions

How it Works

The Maldives Majlis Monitoring Program is a parliamentary monitoring organization (PMO) that is working to create strong, open and accountable parliaments, through enhancing citizen participation in the legislative process and bringing parliaments closer to the people they represent.

We regularly and periodically calculate the time value of every single intervention in parliament that is recorded in the Hansard and official records. Everyone is assessed on the same basis. This is what determines the ranking. Those with the highest time contribution to the activities of parliament get the highest ranks. Deduction of the time value of disruptive contributions. Hence, what is calculated on the MaldivesMajlisMonitoring.com is the "net-constructive-time".

Restrictions on time allocations exist during Bill debates in parliament. Other tools such as petitions, adjournment motion debates and written questions are open to any MPs without time restrictions. MPs public engagements, ethical conduct and public trust factor is calculated through random surveys of constituents.

About Us

MaldivesMajlisMonitoring.com is a website which, for the first time, profiles the actions and activities of each of the 93 Members of Parliament in Maldives. As a MP monitoring scorecard, MaldivesMajlisMonitoring.com recognizes the need for accountability between MPs and their electorates. In doing so, it seeks to promote transparency and good governance in order to improve the democratic framework of Maldives.

MaldivesMajlisMonitoring.com ranks MP's on the basis of productive time spent, on a comprehensive collection of topics based on an objective and impartial coding system. Topics range from Foreign Affairs and Economic Development to Human Rights and Economy. MaldivesMajlisMonitoring.com collects its data from an in-depth analysis of the parliamentary records, documents and where possible the Hansard, a verbatim record of parliamentary proceedings. The data that is captured is then entered into a detailed classification coding system. This system classifies the contributions and scores them against an objective concept of productive time spent in Parliament.

The coding system seeks to reward MP's contributing in a procedurally correct manner within Parliament whilst penalising those that disrupt Parliament and impede its functions. The main aim being to encourage topical debate and tackle disruptiveness, the latter being intricately linked to the public's perception of Parliament.

Additionally, MaldivesMajlisMonitoring.com also provides a profile for each MP, detailing their educational background in addition to their contact and social media details. In doing so MaldivesMajlisMonitoring.com seeks to improve the flow of information between MPs and the general public. It also intends on incentivising better performance by MPs in light of the enhanced scrutiny of their parliamentary activity.

MaldivesMajlisMonitoring.com is run by the Maldives Centre for Policy Research, an independent, non-partisan Maldives based Think Tank, which focuses on Economic, Political, Legal and Media Research, in partnership with Maldives Developers Union, a leading national technology developer and provider.

Q1. How do you analyse each statement?

Every MP has a unique identification code which we record against every single contribution he/she makes in Parliament. Needless to say, there is a lot that is said in Parliament for every day that it sits. Typically a parliamentary hansard is 90 pages long. Therefore we only record statements that are:

  • Over 5 lines long;
  • Less than 5 lines long, but thematic / procedural;
  • Disruptive / Expunged

Each statement is classified by Method of Contribution (e.g Written Question, Point of Order etc), Topic (e.g Economic Development, Agriculture, Resettlement etc), Type of debate (e.g Bill debate, Adjournment Motion etc) and the language that the contribution was given in. Additionally, depending on the method of contribution, we also record the number of lines of the Hansard that such a contribution took.

Presently this task is done completely manually, but we have a cutting edge automation tool under development, which will lower the administrative burden (e.g line counting of hansards) and allow individual coders to spend their time more efficiently.

Q2. What is a method of contribution?

It is a list of 27 categories under which we classify all parliamentary activity. Following are some of the categories that we use:

  1. Written Question
  2. Bill / Regulation / Order
  3. Adjournment Motion - Oral Contribution
  4. Petitions
  5. Disruptive Contribution
  6. Expunged Statement
  7. Oral Contribution
  8. Privileges
  9. Question by Private Notice
  10. Prime Ministers Question
  11. Notification
  12. Announcement
  13. Private Member's Motion
  14. Adjournment Question

Q3. What is a "Disruptive Contribution"?

A disruptive contribution is used to classify interruptions, typically during parliamentary debate, which are non-thematic and have been used as a tool to stall or detract from debate. The aim is to record the MP's who are stalling the legislative function of Parliament. This is not meant to punish those who are raising valid points in an untimely fashion.

Q4. What does "Point of Order - Other" mean?

A "point of order - other" is a disruption caused by an MP in Parliament, when he raises a point of order, thereby causing the Speaker to pause the debate, but then makes no attempt to mention how the other MP's contribution has been procedurally deficient, especially in light of the standing orders of parliament. This is coded to ascertain how points of orders are abused. This is primarily seen as a method to make a speech/point out of turn, or alternatively as a tool to interrupt another MP midway through a speech.

Q5. How do you score contributions?

We surveyed MPs across the political spectrum and compute appropriate productive time scores for each of the methods of contribution, based on either the number of instances of a particular input e.g per written question, or by volume, based on mins of preparation time per line e.g adjournment motion - oral contribution. Based on our findings we created a scoring guide which stipulated values for each of our methods of contribution e.g.each written or verbal question receives a score of 30 minutes of productive time. As the scoring system is applied across all MPs, there is no scope for individual bias to be accommodated within our system.

Q6. How many topics are there?

There are 65 topics and these are all classified under 15 key topic headers. If you refer the "topics" tab on the website, you will find the fifteen key topic headers at the top which are:

  1. Agriculture, Plantations, Livestock & Fisheries
  2. Natural Resources & Environment
  3. National Unity and Settlement
  4. Trade & Industry
  5. Welfare & Social Services
  6. Justice, Defense & Public Order
  7. National Heritage, Media & Sports
  8. Economy and Finance
  9. Education
  10. Labour & Employment
  11. Technology, Communications & Energy
  12. Governance, Administration and Parliamentary Affairs
  13. Health
  14. Urban Planning, Infrastructure and Transportation
  15. Rights & Representation

Q7. Why do you have the key topic headers and topics?

It is fundamental to the research output of MaldivesMajlisMonitoring.com that we record the areas that are being discussed by MPs. However, as there are many standard topics, in order to group the data which could also be aggregated into key topic headers, which could provide a more holistic rank which is better suited for cross-comparison of MPs.

Q8. What is a non-participation, is it important?

The non-participation list is recorded against each topic. This is a list of all the MPs who have not contributed on the respective topic.

Q9. Why do you want to score and rank MPs?

We believe that MPs should productively contribute in Parliament. Whilst we can't assess the qualitative input of MPs, we can assess the effort, in terms of productive time, that MPs put towards their roles as legislators. By scoring and ranking MPs we can reward those who are working hard, sometimes with little media coverage, whilst incentivising others to improve themselves given the enhanced transparency of the parliamentary process.

Q10. What does being the top rank mean?

The top rank means you have achieved the highest score (highest number of productive minutes) for the respective topic or overall rank. This is not a quality score, but illustrates the aggregate number of productive minutes that have been put in by the given MP.

Q11. What do the green, orange and red bars signify?

These signify the score each MP has in the given topic area. The topic ranking MP has a score of 100. This is a hybrid calculation that incorporates elements of a normalized z-score and a normalized ranking, which seeks to provide the best incentives for MPs to improve their parliamentary performance.

Q12. Is MaldivesMajlisMonitoring.com in a position to judge MPs?

We are not judging MPs. We are merely analysing public information and disseminating it in a way that illustrates otherwise unobserved parliamentary patterns.

Q13. How can we verify what you are saying?

We have provided a basic activity log for each MP's contributions. In stating the exact location in the hansard and other official documents of the contributions and also providing a full access downloadable document and hansard archive, any user can cross-check our process.

Q14. How will this initiative be sustained in the long term?

This initiative has been launched in the model of Social Venture Capital Investment. Initial contributing partners have been the Maldives Centre for Policy Research, Amazon Campus Pvt Ltd, and the Maldives Youth Developers Union.

As the venture proves its social benefits, the private sector, research institutions and civil society in Maldives will be welcome to also join as contributors and enable this initiative to be improved and sustained.

Our work is guided and supported by a network of international and national partners including the Open Parliament guidelines and Global Parliamentary Reporting standards.

Q15. My question isn't answered here, what can I do?

Please email your question to [email protected]. We will endeavour to speedily respond.