Elections Commission of the Maldives (ECM) has submitted amendments at the Attorney General's Office (AGO) to solve the issue of party members being unknowingly registered to other parties, or non-members being registered to a party.
Speaking to PSM News, Secretary General of ECM Hassan Zakariyya said a permanent solution can only be found after authorities find the root cause as to why this issue persists. He noted that the reason why political parties work to increase its membership is to become eligible for state funding, as the Political Parties Act dictate that 0.01% of the state budget be distributed to registered political parties with 10,000 or more members.
Additionally, Secretary General Zakariyya said the issue can be solved if parties accept responsibility to maintain their own registry and if the state stops providing funding based on a party's membership count. He said the electoral body has submitted proposals for legal amendments at the Attorney General's Office (AGO) and that issuing fines is not a permanent solution.
ECM has been stepping up efforts to reduce invalid and unverifiable party membership applications. As part of these efforts, the electoral body announced that individuals who have been registered at a party without their knowledge can officially submit their complaints to the commission and that each complaint will be reviewed and legal action will be taken if required.
ECM also announced the decision to issue fines of USD650 to political parties for each unverifiable party membership application submitted to the commission. ECM has also started publishing the list of individuals registering at political parties as part of efforts to strengthen the verification process of party membership forms submitted to the commission.