A press conference of the political parties in the Maldives. PHOTO/SOCIAL MEDIA
Finance ministry provided the Elections Commission of Maldives with the state funds allocated for political parties in the state budget, announced the ministry Wednesday.
Finance ministry’s director Ahmed Aiman stated that the funds will be distributed from the Elections Commission.
Political parties have voiced disapproval over the delay in distributing funds which the Elections Commission is bound to provide to parties within the first three months of the year which under the Political Parties Act, . Parties have complained that the delay in receiving funds has hindered their administrative functioning as well as preparations for the upcoming Local Council Elections in January next year.
While a total amount of MVR 23 million was allocated for parties this year, ruling Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) with the most number of members received the highest amount of MVR 10 million. Meanwhile, main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) received MVR 7 million followed by Jumhooree Party with MVR 2.9 million, while the only coalition partner of the government, Maldives Development Alliance (MDA) received MVR 2.8 million.
Meanwhile, religiously conservative Adaalath Party and Dhivehi Rayyinthunge Party (DRP) were not provided any funds as their members number less than 10,000.
The Elections Commission had earlier said that they delayed distribution of funds while waiting for the court to finalise a decision regarding the necessity of fingerprints on party membership forms. As the number of official members in each party had not been confirmed then, they had withheld the funds.
With the recent amendments made to the Political Parties Act, members who did not present their fingerprints on their membership forms before October 12 were removed from the registry of Political Parties.
With this new change, PPM has become the biggest party active in the country. Previously main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) was leading the list with a total number of 46,608. However, as fingerprints were not presented by 18,803 members, their registration forms were rejected and MDP membership decreased by nearly half with only 27,805 members remaining. In the meantime, PPM is leading with a total of 37,633 members by the end of October 2016.