High Court concludes hearings for JP

High Court has today concluded all hearings for Jumhoory Party's (JP) case seeking an order to obtain the list of people who voted, in relation to alleged irregularities surrounding Saturday's presidential election.

Presenting their case, JP lawyer Arif Ahmed Naseem told the court that they can only substantiate their allegations regarding the credibility of the electoral register if they receive a copy of the list of people who voted.

He also said that Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) candidate, who received the most amount of votes, amongst other candidate, have also stated that there were irregularities regarding the electoral register. He pointed out practices in other democratic countries, and said certain countries have allowed the candidates access to the list of people who voted.

Arif noted that the Elections (general) Act requires a court order for the Elections Commission (EC) to allow the candidates to have access to list, and asked the court to grant them such an order.

Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM), who has filed an intervention to the case, also asked the court for to order EC to provide the list. PPM’s lawyer Ahmed Zaneen Adam said that the party fully supports JP regarding the case.

In answer to the case, EC's lawyer Husnu Al Suood said that the list contains people’s personal information, which revealing the list would compromise.

He noted that, the fact that an individual had, or had not cast his vote during the presidential election, and the location to which he cast his vote, should remain secret. He said that there is a possibility of unrest if the list is leaked to the public.

PPM lawyer Zaneen argued that political parties already obtain their members' names, addresses, identification card numbers and date-of-births, when their initially register to the party. He said that the parties currently hold information of over 100,000 people in the country. He said that the public needs to present an identification card when obtaining services from a number places and thus, it cannot be considered personal information.

Ahmed Abdulla Afeef, lawyer representing Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), the country's largest political party who has also intervened in the case, told the court that there is not enough evidence presented to make JP’s case.

He said that any order stating that there were inconsistencies in the election process would cause to question the the excess of 95,000 votes won by MDP candidate Mohamed Nasheed, and that there was no room for such an order, especially in light of the lack of evidence.

JP lawyer Arif and EC lawyer Husnu Al Suood both agreed when the High Court Judge’s bench asked if they would agree to the EC allowing them to visit the Commission office to access the list of voters.

When the judges asked of the time it would need to go through the list, EC lawyer Suood said that it would take more than 400 hours.

Concluding the hearing, chief of the bench Judge Abdul Ganee Mohamed announced that the High Court will soon table a hearing to announce a verdict.