Elections Commission to be summoned to committee regarding issue taken up by MDA

The Parliament Committee on Independent Institutions has decided to summon officials of the Elections Commission for questioning regarding the issue of unprocessed membership forms that were submitted prior to the ratification of the Political Parties Bill.

The Independent Institutions Committee decided to summon officials of the Elections Commission following a request by the Maldives Development Alliance (MDA) to notify the Elections Commission to expedite the verification of the validity of the membership forms submitted by the party.

The letter sent by MDA to the committee in this regard states that the Elections Commission, by not confirming the validity of the membership forms, has acted against the spirit of the Supreme Court order whereby the court notified all authorities to refrain from taking any action to dissolve any political parties; and so requested the committee to investigate the matter and to notify the Elections Commission to expedite the work to confirm the validity of the forms submitted by MDA.

At today’s committee meeting, Thoddoo MP Ali Waheed said that the membership forms submitted to the Elections Commission before the ratification of the Political Parties Bill should be processed.

He said that he would not accept the dissolution of the parties that had submitted over 10,000 forms before the bill was ratified.

“I support the spirit of the request made by MDA. When a law is created and when it comes into effect, we have to think positively, not negatively. So if a form was submitted even one second before the law came into effect, it is not the responsibility of the party that submits the form [to ensure that it is processed]. It is the responsibility of the institution that accepted the form,” he said.

Committee Chairperson, Kulhudhuffushi-South MP Mohamed Nasheed said that officials of the Elections Commission will be summoned to the committee at 11:15 am tomorrow for questioning regarding this issue.