Main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) has expressed concern on Tuesday, citing that the candidacy application period for the upcoming Local Council and Women’s Development Committee (WDC) elections is “too short” as the criminal and debt record clearance is time-consuming.
Elections Commission (EC) opened candidacy applications for the Local Council and WDC elections scheduled for April 4th on January 17th, with a deadline set for 00:00am on February 1st. The applications are accepted via EC’s online portal, accessible via eFaas.
MDP, via a social media post criticizing the candidacy application period as “too short”, stressed that candidates who wish to contest in the election are facing difficulties in terms of due process.
In this regard, the party emphasized that obtaining criminal record clearance from the Maldives Correctional Service, the Department of Judicial Administration (DJA), the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), and the Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO), along with other perquisites, is a highly time-consuming process.
“Because it takes days to clear records from government officers and fulfill other perquisites, we believe this is not an adequate timeframe to submit applications and thereby, express concern over many prospective candidates being denied the opportunity to contest the election,” he said.
As such, MDP appealed to EC to rectify this.
Notably, the complaint from MDP comes after Maldives Correctional Service announced earlier on Tuesday that it was experiencing delays in issuing criminal record clearances due to a server overload caused by a surge in bulk applications.
MDP, on Saturday, also called on EC to allow manual application or bulk applications for the elections.