Confirmed, council elections will not be held in March

It has been “confirmed” that the local council elections for which the Elections Commission (EC) was preparing to hold in March, cannot be held on the date.

The elections were originally planned for April 2020, however, due to COVID-19, the EC was forced to postpone the elections, and laws were also passed facilitating the move. 

Ec Chairman, Ahmed Shareef said to Sun that the EC had held meetings with the Health Protection Agency (HPA) to start preparations for the elections in March, and to discuss when the state of public health emergency in the nation could be brought to an end. 

The HPA had informed the EC that the state of public health emergency could not be ended right now.

“They informed that due to the current situation with COVID-19, a date for when the state of public health emergency could be brought to an end was not known. HPA officials said that discussions would be held with experts regarding the matter.” Said Shareef. 

The laws passed regarding the postponement of the elections stipulate that the elections can only be held once the state of public health emergency in the Maldives was ended. The law also states that the election is to be held if a state institution determines that it would not pose a risk to public health. 

Shareef said that the current situation did not allow EC to hold the elections and that the HPA did not guarantee that the state of public health emergency could be ended by March. 

However, the laws passed to postpone the election stipulates that the election is to be held within one year of passing the laws, which means that March will be the deadline to hold the elections at the latest. 

Shareef has previously said that permission to hold the elections was needed by at least January 5. 

The laws related to elections state that every party and candidate are to be allowed sufficient time to campaign, something if not provided, Shareef pointed out, could see the results of the election annulled through the courts by the candidates and party by challenging the election results. 

Currently, measures in place due to COVID-19 requires travelers to islands other than Male’ City to quarantine for a period of 10 days. Public gatherings in islands are still banned to prevent the spread of the virus. Opposition coalition parties are expressing concern over the restrictions to the campaign due to the measures. 

Around 2,300 candidates could take part in the elections. However, this year has seen many candidates take back their candidacy due to various reasons.