As the Elections Commission has dismissed the members without fingerprints on membership forms and reestablished the political party directory, the ruling political party, PPM, has become the largest political party in the Maldives.
The Elections Commission reestablished the party directory following an amendment to the Law of Political Parties on 16 August 2016.
The new directory shows 37,633 members in PPM as opposed to the previous count of 36, 232. Government coalition's MDA lost 55 members from their previous 10,639 leaving the party with 10,584 members.
MDP, previously the largest party with 46,608 lost a large number of their members due to not being able to acquire fingerprints on the membership forms. MDP has now been reduced to 27,805 members after losing 18,803 members.
The party to lose most members next to MDP is DRP which lost 10,784 members leaving them with 3,966 members.
Adhaalath Party lost 1414 members to lack of fingerprints on forms dwindling down from 9,009 members to 7,595 members.
The new directory shows Jumhooree Party (JP) with 10,989 members after losing 3,000 members.
The amendment to the Political Party Law states that membership forms of the parties mist include the name, address, national ID Card number, age, fingerprint and signature along with a copy of a valid ID Card.
The amendment passed from the parliament forces the Elections Commission to refer to the list with members deducted for not having fingerprints on their membership forms.