Media Council election postponed

The Maldives Media Council (MMC) election, scheduled for Thursday, has been postponed.

The Ministry of Home Affairs said that it has received a large number of complaints regarding the election; and to allow time to consider the complaints, the election has been postponed to 20 November.

In an announcement informing the postponement today, the ministry said that voters were invited to register following the end of the term of the council members elected under Article 4 of the MMC Act, but several problems have been found in the voter registration forms submitted to the ministry.

This comes after all major media groups in the country submitted a petition to the Home Ministry today, asking to establish a valid register of all newspapers, magazines, and news websites, before holding the MMC election.

The petition stated that the validity of the list of newspapers on the ministry’s website is highly questionable as it contains names of newspapers that are not issued.

The group highlighted that similarly, any election held before establishing a register as required by article 29 of the regulation would not be valid; and called on the ministry to ensure that the election only includes newspapers that are issued as per regulations.