Bill on Political Parties:
Parties required to have 5,000 members to register; 10,000 to get financial support

The Parliament Independent Institutions Committee has decided that under the new law on political parties, political parties will be required to have 5,000 members before it can be registered, and 10,000 members for it to be entitled to financial support from government.

This was passed unanimously by the Committee at the meeting held yesterday.

Prior to passing the decision, long debates were held especially on the issue of not providing money to parties which have less than 10,000 members.

Chairman of the Committee, Kulhudhuffushi-dhekunu MP Mohamed Nasheed said that parties that have less than 5,000 registered members will be given six months to obtain additional members when the law is enforced. Parties that fail to have 5,000 members within this period will be abolished.

Parties that register after the law is enforced will be given three months to meet the requirement of 5,000 members.

Nasheed said that the requirement of 10,000 members to obtain money from the government was decided because, considering the size of the population of Maldives, a political party that has 10,000 members would be politically influential; and it would be reasonable to provide money for such a party to promote its ideas.