JP, AG claim minors included in electoral register

Attorney General Aishath Azima Shakoor and Jumhoory Party have both stated that the names of minors below the age of 18 were included in the electoral register, by changing their date of birth.

Azima Shakoor and JP made their statements at the Supreme Court today, during the first hearing for JP's case asking to annul the September 7th presidential election results.

Representing JP, the party’s vice presidential candidate Dr Hassan Saeed told the court that names of 41 individuals below the age of 18 were included in the electoral register, after altering their date of births.

However, the Attorney General Azima Shakoor, who has filed an intervention to the case, stated that number of individual’s who’s date of births were altered was 39 individuals.

Additionally, Dr Hassan Saeed said that names of 102 individuals were repeated in the electoral register and that they also have evidence of double voting, which they will eventually present to the court.

Azima Shakoor also accused the government of neglecting to produce identification cards for 1800 individuals.

She said that the genders of 746 voters were switched in the electoral register, and that names of 1627 individuals did not match the names on their identifications.

Azima said that names of 1600 individuals, who have never produced an identification, were included in the electoral register. She also claimed that the amount of male and female voters who had voted in four ballot boxes did not tally with the electoral register.

However, the Attorney General did not ask the court to annul the election results, but stated that the issues highlighted by the Attorney General’s Office in court need to be addressed before proceeding to the second round of polls.

Azima also noted that, although the law stipulates that all election related irregularities must be investigated in conjunction with the Elections Commission, the irregularities surrounding the September 7th presidential election have not been investigated due of certain obstacles.

Attorney General asked the Surpeme Court today to issue and order upon the Prosecutor General’s Office (PG) to order the police to investigate the irregularities surrounding the first round of polls.

Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM), who has also filed an intervention to the case, asked the court to annul the first round of polls. PPM's lawyer Ahmed Zaneen Adam said that asserted the motion based on the statement that a large number of the population has lost faith in the credibility of the September 7th polls.

Zaneen told the court that the Elections Commissions’s Elections Complaints Bureau has admitted to a complaint where a number of people in Haa Alif Hoarafushi were registered to random ballot boxes, without their knowledge. He said that the Bureau stated that the matter will be reported to the police and duly investigated.

Citing the The National Centre for Information Technology (NCIT), Azima said that the Elections Commission's IT systems were hacked and compromised, but said that the Commission has refused to acknowledge NCIT when they asked the Commission to investigate the matter.

Lawyer representing the Elections Commission, former Attorney General Husnu Al Suood argued in length that the allegations by Jumhoory Party was baseless.

Stating that the whole case was based on claims, Suood said that certain individuals born in 1950 were also amongst the people claimed to be below the age of 18 and included in the electoral register.

In addition, Suood said that JP has not been able to produce any substantial evidence to back their allegations, and that even if they could, the outcome would not be enough to change the election results.

Elections Commission and Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), who won the most amount of votes and has also intervened in the case, asserted that there was no room for a ruling to annul the elections results.

Concluding today’s hearing, Chief Justice Ahmed Faiz Hussain said that he will table a hearing for the case for tomorrow, Wednesday.