EC vice president threatens to resign if court rules Commission deceitful

Vice President of the Elections Commission Ahmed Fayaz has stated that he will tender his resignation if the court rules that the commission had been deceitful in their conduct of the Saturday presidential elections.

Speaking at a press conference in the Commission's office today, the Elections Commission vice chief vouched to have never abused his power of office to influenced the electoral process.

“I am saying this in front of everyone here, I have not cheated or done anything wrongfully, have not abused my power or misused my power, regarding the election. The only thing that an individual needs to do is show the evidence. I will readily resign from my post,” Fayaz said. “If the court rules that the Elections Commission was deceitful in anything, I will resign as the vice president of the Elections Commission. If any of the courts in the Maldives decides that the Commission, the Commission is the five of us. So if they rule that the commission had been deceitful, I will resign,” Fayaz said.

He stated that he has fully held the Commission’s confidentiality so far and that all his meetings with political people has been as a member of the Elections Commission.

Regarding the JP’s allegations that there has been gross vote rigging in the election, Fayaz said that JP has yet to file any complaint with the commission and that the party has not been able to produce any proof to their claims.

He said that JP’s allegations are inconsistent and that there is no possibility that 20,000 votes were cast illegally, as alleged by JP. Fayaz said that the polling itself and counting of ballots were carried out transparently.

Fayaz said that law does not allow them to reveal the list of people who voted, and said that the only way they can reveal the list is through a court order. He said that there can be no scenario that the entire election has to conducted against, but said that balloting maybe conducted for a particular box or constituency, if the court orders as such.

Fayaz said that if any party can prove that there was deceit in a ballot box, the commission is ready to conduct a recount of the box in front of the media, observers and party representatives.