Elections Commission of the Maldives (ECM) has commenced efforts to change the regulations on distributing state funds to political parties.
ECM has been conducting discussions with political parties, the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) and parliamentarians to propose the relevant legislative amendments. ECM has drafted a bill to amend Article 36 of the Political Parties Act, which dictates how state funds should be distributed to political parties. The amendment bill proposes to distribute the funds based on the number of votes a party receives in elections instead of the number of party members.
Some political parties have acknowledged the need to amend the regulations on distributing state funds but stated that distributing funds based on the number of votes received would be unfair for many parties. However, ECM has revealed that it plans to propose the amendment bill at the next parliament sitting and stated that the current regulations are unfair for both the state and political parties.
ECM began work to amend the regulations on distributing state funds in response to complaints over the high number of invalid membership applications. The electoral body has discussed making legislative changes to solve this issue with the AGO and has also been visiting the offices of political parties to determine how the state funds are being used. The visits are also part of its work to conduct an audit on the finances of political parties receiving funds from the state budget.
The Political Parties Act states that 0.01% of the state budget should be distributed to registered political parties with 10,000 or more members. The four eligible parties are the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), the opposition Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM), as well as government coalition partners Jumhooree Party (JP) and Adhaalath Party (AP).
The Political Parties Act grants ECM the authority to monitor the finances of parties receiving state funds. ECM also holds the authority to take action against parties that do not maintain records of its finances or fail to submit its financial report to ECM.