MP requests ACC to halt money being provided to parties

A Member of Parliament (MP) has accused the Elections Commission’s (EC) system for providing money to political parties of being corrupt, and requested the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to halt the provision of money to political parties.

A letter sent by Vice President of Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) and Fonadhoo MP, Abdul Raheem Abdullah to the President of ACC Hassan Luthfee states that money is provided to political parties based on the number of members registered with that party; however, EC’s registry of political party members is not reliable.

He said that the registries for some political parties contain member names which are not valid.

“EC has decided to determine which names are valid, which means the registry could currently contain names which are not valid. ACC is requested to ensure that the provision of the people’s money to political parties is based on the legitimate number of members of political parties,” he said.

Abdul Raheem Abdullah also highlighted some reasons why EC’s registry is not reliable. He said that even though EC has started using fingerprints to verify members’ validity, the Commission does not have any established system or tool to implement this procedure.

“The Commission has no database to check whether information on application forms match the fingerprint, for example if someone submits a form with his own, valid fingerprint but with someone else’s information,” says the letter.