High Court orders EC to postpone implementing decision regarding fingerprint issue

High Court on Monday issued an order to Elections Commission asking them to postpone their decision to remove members from political parties that submitted forms without the required fingerprints.

Fingerprints were made compulsory on forms submitted for party membership starting from 2010. It was not required on membership forms when political parties were first set up in the country.

Elections Commission gave six months’ time for political parties to get fingerprints of members that submitted forms before fingerprints were required; which ended in December, 2015. EC has said that they would be removing people who have not submitted their fingerprints even within the time period.

High Court issued the order after Maldivian Democratic Party and Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party filed a lawsuit saying that removing members from party register because they had not submitted fingerprints at a time when it had not been required was unlawful.

EC has said that the decision on what to do with members who had not submitted their fingerprints lay with the court. And that they would follow the court’s decision.

MDP and DRP originally filed the lawsuit with Civil Court, which said that they could not issue an order to postpone EC removing members from political party registers. A decision which they appealed with High Court.