Committee passes to hold parliamentary election after Ramadan

The special committee appointed to review the bill submitted by MDP to ban national elections during the month of Ramadan has passed the amendments to the General Elections Act as proposed.

At a convening held on Wednesday, the committee approved to mandate holding an election 10 days after Ramadan, if an election date falls within the holy month. The committee’s chairperson, North Maafannu MP Imthiyaz Fahumy told Sun that the amendments were passed with the unanimous consensus of all members of the committee in attendance.

Despite the Elections Commission (EC) requesting to include a provision in the bill to allow the parliamentary election to be held without waiting for 10 days after Ramadan at Tuesday’s committee meeting, Imthiyaz said they had not included such a request in the written document submitted to the Committee today.

He further said EC had not requested any amendments to the bill, concerning the date of the election.

However, Imthiyaz noted that some amendments were brought to the bill as requested by EC. Nevertheless, he said the bill, for most of its part, was passed as initially proposed by MDP in the first stage.

The bill has been initiated as this year’s parliamentary election falls on Ramadan. It is strongly refuted by the ruling coalition’s lawmakers.

Notably, if passed by the parliament floor, the earliest date the parliamentary election can be held is on April 19^th.

The term of the current parliamentary assembly is set to expire on May 28^th.