The High Court has issued a mandate to the Elections Commission (EC), ordering them to delay taking any action until the conclusion of the trial regarding the case submitted to the court by the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) and Dhivehi Raiyyithunge Party (DRP).
The decision was issued by the Court, after the defense filed an appeal on the Civil Court ruling that the Court could not issue a stay order on removing members from Party membership over the question of finger prints and missing information.
Presiding Judge, Ali Sameer said that in their arguments the state had failed to adequately establish the exact losses they would encounter if such a move was allowed to take place. However, he noted that if the EC had proceeded to remove members, while the case was ongoing, many members from MDP will removed from the party register, DRP will cease to function and the electoral and political rights of many citizens will be hampered.
As such, the Judge said that there were rights that need to be granted to the defense, as the state had not pressed on issuing such an order during the process in the lower court. He added that the prosecution had acted on different methods in two separate cases, adding that it was not acceptable.
Regarding the fingerprint issue, Attorney General Mohamed Anil advised that members cannot be ordered to resubmit their membership forms. The EC however did not abide by the advice. When asked about this, the prosecution said that the advice of AG was not a ruling but merely guidelines and therefore not followed.
If the ruling comes into place, MDP will lose 23000 members, while DRP stands to lose 14000 members and will face dissolution.