Secret voting not compulsory for presidential primary elections

It has been decided in the Bill on Political Parties that it is optional for political parties to conduct secret voting in elections to choose candidates to represent the parties in elections stipulated in the constitution. The article earlier stated that parties should take a secret vote to elect candidates for such elections.

This amendment to the Political Parties Bill was proposed by PPM Parliamentary Group Member Abdul Azeez Jamal Abubakr.

Article 17 (a) of the bill earlier stated that parties should choose candidates to represent the parties in elections stipulated in the constitution by taking secret votes according to the basic regulations of the respective party. This article was amended before the bill was passed, to state that the relevant party’s basic regulations should describe the policies on electing candidates for elections stipulated in the constitution.

This amendment was voted in favour by 35 MPs and against by MPs of MDP.

If this bill is ratified, it would no longer be compulsory to conduct secret voting in primaries to elect presidential or parliamentary candidates, or in primaries for electing councillors as required by the Decentralisation Act.

Over 40 amendments were proposed to the Political Parties Bill, out of which only 15 were passed. Even some major amendments proposed by political party leaders were rejected by the parliament.

In this regard, JP Leader and Maamigili MP Gasim Ibrahim proposed that if the National Councils or National Steering Committees of two or several parties decide that the parties should be merged, the Elections Commission should register the two parties as one.

Gasim’s amendment was supported by DRP Parliamentary Group deputy Leader Dr Abdullah Mausoom. While 49 MPs voted against this amendment, it was supported by 18 MPs of DRP and JP.

Meanwhile, it has been determined in the bill that parties with less than 10,000 members will be dissolved, for which concern has been raised by smaller parties. The registry of the Elections Commission shows that 30 percent of Maldivians are members of political parties. The parties with more than 10,000 members are MDP, PPM, DRP and JP.