Roughly 100 applications to contest in council, WDC elections within two days

Elections Commission (EC) states they have received roughly 100 candidacy applications to contest in the Local Council and Women’s Development Committee (WDC) elections.

EC opened candidacy applications for the Local Council and WDC elections scheduled for April 4^th on Saturday with a deadline set for 15:30pm on February 1^st.

When questioned by Sun on Monday, EC’s Vice President Abdul Rahman Salah Rasheed said the Commission has received roughly 100 candidacy applications so far, accounting for roughly 50 forms for each election.

According to EC’s voter register, 294,937 people are eligible to vote in this year’s council elections, including 150,410 men and 144,527 women.

A total of 626 councillors will be elected to island councils, along with 52 councillors to city councils. Under recent constitutional amendments, 132 islands will elect three councillors each—comprising a council president and a designated women’s member—while 46 islands will elect five councillors, including two women representatives.

Interested candidates can submit their applications through EC’s online portal, accessible via eFaas. If the applicant chooses to contest the election on a political party’s ticket, an endorsement request will be sent to the relevant political party, which can decide on the request through the Simedha portal.

EC noted that candidates who wish to contest the election independently must present endorsement from at least 50 people. In this regard, EC detailed constituents can endorse the candidate via the Commission’s portal.

The minimum 50-person endorsement does not apply to individuals contesting the WDC election independently.

Polling in the Local Council and WDC elections will tale place from 8:00am to 16:00pm on April 4^th. Vote counting will begin after a 30-minute break, and official results are scheduled to be announced on April 11^th.