Disbursement of funds to political parties will commence this week: Elections Commission

Elections Commission (EC) has said that disbursement of funds allocated to political parties will commence this week.

In an interview to Sun Online today, Secretary General of EC Asim Abdul Sattar said that funds have not yet been disbursed because of difficulties faced by Finance Ministry due to the high number of vouchers received by the ministry at the beginning of the year. He said that the money will be paid out latest by the end of the week.

“Finance Ministry holds all funds that belong to the state. We post under a public account system. The system does not approve due to the large number of vouchers at the beginning of the year. The purpose isn’t to withhold the funds. We hope that the parties will receive the funds latest by the end of the week,” he said.

It has not yet been possible to obtain Finance Ministry’s comment on the issue of delayed funds.

Elections Commission Member Ali Mohamed Manik has said that funds have been withheld for seven political parties, as they have failed to submit up-to-standard audit reports and not held any political activities.

“Seven political parties have not submitted audit reports according to our standards. They also haven’t held any political activities, or have an open party office. Funds have been withheld for seven political parties,” he said.

The party with the highest membership, MDP, will receive MVR3.6 million, while PPM will receive MVR1.98 million.

DRP will receive MVR1.9 million, Jumhooree Party MVR1.2 million, Adhaalath Party MVR794,000, President Waheed’s party Gaumee Itthihad MVR608,000, MDA MVR624,000, Dhivehi Gaumee Party MVR529,000 and MNC MVR478,000.

The Maldives presently has 16 registered political parties, of which only 8 meet the requirement of 3,000 members and actively hold political events.