A motion has been proposed to the Parliament of the Maldives to investigate cases of individuals being registered to political parties without their knowledge.
Parliamentarian Mohamed Abdulla Shafeeq said he proposed the motion to address the concerns of the public, as there are numerous cases of party members being unknowingly registered to other parties, or non-members being registered to a party.
Public concern over the issue grew after it was found that Parliamentarian Mohamed Ziyad, who represents Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), had been registered to Maldives National Party (MNP) without his knowledge. MDP found out that Ziyad was registered to MNP after requesting the Elections Commission of the Maldives (ECM) to check for MDP members that are registered to other parties. ECM has since re-registered Ziyad to MDP and the case is now being investigated by the relevant authorities.
Expressing his concern at the Parliament, Parliamentarian Ziyad said that he was registered to MNP after all the relevant membership application forms were filled and submitted without his knowledge. He detailed that the application had two witnesses that claimed he had signed and submitted his fingerprint for the forms. He further said that he had been registered to MNP for a total of six months. He called for a serious investigation into the incident, as it is a major violation of his rights and a blight on the political system.
Furthermore, Parliamentarian Ziyad criticised MNP for being irresponsible and said that political parties are the most responsible for verifying their membership applications. He added that he was elected to the Parliament as a member of MDP and that he will continue to represent the main ruling party. Other parliamentarians also agreed that the political parties have a responsibility to verify their membership applications but that the ECM also has to be more vigilant in preventing such incidents.
Speaker of the Parliament Mohamed Nasheed has decided to investigate the case of Parliamentarian Ziyad being unknowingly registered to MNP and requested that his membership application form for MNP be submitted to the Secretary-General of the Parliament.
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.