Embattled EC members accused of creating fake forms, selling it for money

Three members of the Elections Commission (EC), including vice chairman Ali Nashath, face serious allegations of misconduct, including extracting information from the commission’s database to create fake applications and selling it to political parties, and conspiring to secure a win for a specific political party in the 2023 presidential election.

In a closed meeting on Sunday, the Parliament’s Independent Institutions Committee passed no-confidence motions against Nashath and commissioners Mohamed Asif and Dr. Mohamed Zahir.

The motions against them were submitted to the Parliament on November 12.

Maafushi MP Hussain Riza, the chair of the Independent Institutions Committee, presented the committee’s report regarding the motions against the commissioners to the floor on Monday morning.

According to the report, the committee found that during the 2023 elections, Nashath extracted information from the EC’s database to create fake membership applications, which he sold to political parties. The committee also found that all three commissioners conspired to rig the election in favor of a specific political party. The trio was also accused of tampering with the reregistration process.

The committee also found the commissioners shared a list of members who signed for a new political party with the President’s Office, and actively worked to impede the registration of the new political party.

They were also accused of creating fake applications with the aim of having a political party dissolved, and working to prevent the party from meeting the 3,000-membership mark.

They were also accused of selling privileged information of Maldivian citizens in EC’s database for financial gain.

Additional findings:

• Colluding with businesses and engaging in corruption in the procurement process, including in the award of a contract to procure computer systems for the EC.
• Nashath used disrespectful and vulgar language in communications with the EC’s staff members.
• All three commissioners openly told EC’s staff members that corruption is not a problem, and that selling votes for money is an acceptable norm.
• Nashath controlled some of EC’s senior staff members and showed them favoritism, including by buying them meals.
• All three commissioners engaged in secret dealings with a specific company regarding the procurement of IT equipment, and secured large sums of money from each of the deals.
• Nashath had affairs with some of the EC’s staff members, and were openly discriminatory towards some staff.
• All three used disrespectful language in communications with staff and threatened some with their jobs.
• All three tampered with attendance records to write fake timestamps to hide absences.
• Nashath held close relations with a number of political figures and held frequent meetings with a former staff member at the President’s Office.

The Parliament is scheduled to take a floor vote on the no-confidence motions against the trio later on Monday.

The bid by the ruling People’s National Congress (PNC) to dismiss the three commissioners come as EC chairman Fuad Thaufeeq’s term expired on Saturday. He has been nominated by President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu as the next ambassador to Thailand.