Elections Commission (EC) has reported that 48,058 individuals from 12 political parties do not have their fingerprints on their application forms and has instructed those parties to complete the formalities.
It has been reported that MDP has 23,058 members on their membership registry with no fingerprints, out of the total 46,608 members in the Party. It is also reported that Party President Mohamed Nasheed’s signature is missing from the database as well.
DRP has to update the forms of 10,421 members out of the 14,750 members registered in the Party. JP has to update the forms of 2,764 members of the 13,990 in the Party. AP has to update the fingerprints of 2,866 members out of the 9,009 in the Party. IDP has to update the fingerprint of 2,125 out of the 2,148 in the Party.
Former President Dr. Mohamed Waheed’s GIP has 1,275 members with missing fingerprints, while President Abdullah Yameen’s PA has 990 members with no fingerprints.
Other parties with missing fingerprints:
- Maldivian Labor Party – 664
- Maldivian National Congress – 1042
- Maldivian Social Democratic Party – 1221
- People’s Party – 1188
- Social Liberal Party – 462
EC has decreed that all parties have to update their databases before the end of the year. EC has also decreed that members without proper identification will be removed from that party’s database. MDP Elections Committee Chair Ibrahim Waheed stated that the EC ruling was against the spirit of the Political Party Act and the Constitution.
Political Parties Act states that EC has to review the registry of Political Parties every six months. If the Party fails to meet such criteria, EC has to notify the Party within three months.
It is notable that the issues were not marked in ruling PPM or MDA. As such, PPM has 36,236 members in their registry and MDA has 7,666 members.
Waheed added that submitting fingerprints was decreed after former President Maumoon and President Yameen had claimed that PPM had the largest number of members in the Party. EC Member Ahmed Akram stated that the fingerprinting system was devised to strengthen the political parties system.
PPM and MDA was formed after EC had decreed that all Parties have to submit fingerprints of members in 2010.