Political parties in the Maldives were legalized when the Maldivian parliament voted unanimously for the creation of a multi-party system on 2 June 2005. This came after decades of authoritarian rule. Prior to this ruling, political parties had not been not allowed under the Maldivian legal system.
On 12 March 2013, president Mohamed Waheed Hassan ratified a new Political Party Bill replacing the guidelines established in 2005, when the Maldives first became a multi-party system. The bill raised the minimum number of members required to register a political party from 3,000 to 10,000. With the ratification of the bill, all registered political parties with less than 10,000 members were dissolved. The following is a list of parties dissolved under the law:
The First Republic of the Maldives had only one party, the Rayyithunge Muthagaddim Party.