Court asked to invalidate PPM primary

A case has been filed in Civil Court seeking to invalidate the recent presidential primary elections of the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM).

The case was filed by a general member, Rahma Moosa.

Rahma told Sun today that she was prompted to submit the case after a large number of the party's general membership had expressed the opinion that the matter should be contested in court.

Her request from the Civil Court was to invalidate the PPM presidential primary election on the basis that the primary’s voter registry was drawn up against the political parties law, she said.

The case also states that a total of 8,915 who were not included in the party's registry were allowed to vote, and that this too was a violation of the law on political parties, she revealed.

Rahma said that the statistics released by the Elections Commission showed that as of 10th March 2013, PPM had a total of 22,383 registered members, but said that the party had allowed a total of 31,298 people to participate in the vote.

Members from different other parties were allowed to vote during the PPM primary, she said, and that this was an infringement of the rights of the members of PPM.

The case has been submitted in court at a time when a lot of tension exists within the party, after Umar Naseer, who had lost the primary, accused the current presidential candidate Abdulla Yameen of rigging the primary vote, which in turn has prompted the party to demand a public apology from Umar.