EC publishes eligible voters' list along with names of the deceased

Maldives Elections Commission (EC) has stated that they have not received the accurate information regarding the number of deceased individuals as they have today published the list of eligible voters for the upcoming presidential elections.

The list of eligible voters published in the government gazette by the Commission today has a total of 240,302 names, including the names of the deceased.

President of the Elections Commission Fuad Thaufeeq told Sun today that it is possible that the list might include names of certain individuals who have passed away during the recent years and urged the public to inform the Elections Commission’s Registrations Section if they come across such names.

“We believe that we have not received the accurate information regarding the people who have passed away. We obtain the information from whichever relevant authority that holds the information at that time. We have noticed that we have not received the proper information regarding the matter,” Fuad Thaufeeq said.

He said that the Commission has allowed the public a period of 10 days to notify the Commission's Registration Section of any discrepancy in the voter’s registry such as; inclusion of names of the deceased, lack of names of eligible voters and issues where the voter's name and the Identification Card number does not match.

The Election Commission said that those individuals who fail to inform the amendments within 10 days will be barred from their right to vote.

“If the person is dead, the procedure is that it can verified by statements from two family members. The persons who are not included in the list cannot vote. Persons also cannot vote if their names are spelled wrong, or if their addresses are wrong, or if the name on their ID cards and the name on the list does not match,” EC President Fuad Thaufeeq said.

The publication of the list of eligible voter’s on the government gazette has been postponed on several occasions, including an instance where the people of Haa Dhaalu Hirimaradhoo had surrounded the island’s Council office in protest.

The number of eligible voters during the 2008 presidential elections stood at total of 209,294 voters.