Parliament to reconvene for extraordinary sitting on Jan. 13

The Parliament is scheduled to reconvene for an extraordinary sitting outside of regular sessions on Wednesday, January 13.

The extraordinary sitting is being held to commence work on revisions to the Special Provisions Act on Local Council Elections 2020 in order to expedite the postponed Local Council Elections.

The sitting is scheduled to begin at 08:30 am on January 13.

The agenda for the sitting is the first reading of the Bill on Revision of Special Provisions Act on Local Council Elections 2020, which Hulhumale’ MP Ali Niyaz submitted to the Parliament earlier this Thursday.

Ali Niyaz told Sun that key revisions to the Act are designed to enable for the elections to be held even if the state of public health emergency remains in effect, enable for legally mandates time frames for elections preparations – including deadlines for voter registration and finalization of voters’ list - to be shortened.

Another key revision will authorize the Elections Commission to set an election date.

Local Council Elections was originally scheduled to be help in April 2020, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Elections Commission later attempted to hold the postponed elections on March 6, but the attempt fell through following the recent extension to the state of public health emergency until February 3.

Elections Commission’s chairman Ahmed Shareef recently announced that the commission now hopes to have the necessary legislative revisions pushed through this January and hold the elections on April 3.