Supreme Court issues order to halt dissolving political parties

The Supreme Court has issued a temporary order, to halt all action towards dissolving any political party until the court makes a decision on the case filed by the State in relation to the Political Party Act.

This order by the Supreme Court was issued on State institutions and all relevant authorities.

The Supreme Court said that the temporary order had to be issued following the State’s claim that the some sections of the Political Party Act contradict the Constitution.

Following the president’s ratification of the Political Party Bill, the Elections Commission announced that all parties with less than 10,000 members had been removed from its Political Party Registry.

Maldives Development Alliance (MDA) was removed from the Political Party Registry despite having submitted over 10,000 membership forms to the Elections prior to the ratification of the bill. This has been confirmed to the media also by the Elections Commission.

President Dr Mohamed Waheed’s Gaumee Itthihad Party (GIP), which has also been removed from the commission’s registry, has also claimed that it had submitted 10,000 forms to the Elections Commission before the bill was ratified. But this has not been confirmed by the Elections Commission.

Both parties have refused to accept the commission’s decision to remove them from its registry.

President of Elections Commission Fuad Thaufeeg said that MDA had submitted 10,000 membership forms, while GIP had submitted only 9,800 forms when the bill was ratified.

GIP has filed a case to Supreme Court regarding the Elections Commission’s decision, and MDA has also announced that work is ongoing to take the matter to court.

Vice President of Gaumee Party has also filed a case to Supreme Court requesting it to declare several sections of the Political Party Act void.

An official of the Attorney General’s Office said that the dissolution of political parties with less than 10,000 members from the day the law comes into effect would result in serious legal problems, due to the failure to include transitional policies in the Act regarding the legal transactions made by the parties with various groups.