Elections Commission resumes processing political party membership forms

The Elections Commission (EC) has resumed processing political party membership forms. The commission suspended processing the forms following the ratification of the Political Parties Bill by the president.

The commission removed the political parties with less than 10,000 members from its registry on 12 March when the Political Parties Act came into effect.

The parties were however re-included in the commission’s registry, following a Supreme Court order to halt any efforts that may lead to the dissolution of any political party, until the court made a decision on the case filed by the State requesting to remove some articles included in the Political Parties Act.

Subsequently, the commission decided to process only the membership forms of Members of Parliament who changed or joined political parties, and no other membership forms submitted to the commission by political parties.

The Elections Commission said in a statement issued today that the issue was filed to the Parliament Committee on Independent Institutions by the Maldives Development Alliance (MDA), and that the commission had been consequently notified by the committee not to act in this manner.

The commission said that as per the committee’s notification, it had resumed processing the membership forms – including the forms of MDA and Gaumee Ittihad Party (GIP) – that were submitted before the Political Parties Act came into effect.