The Election Commission of the Maldives (ECM) has announced that the change in the party membership registration form will come into effect from November 15 to tackle the issue of parties registering members without their knowledge.
ECM has decided to introduce the change in order to address the problem of fraudulent recruitment by parties and the public. The commission changed the membership form into three separate forms, including the Application for Membership of the Newly Formed Party, the Membership Application Form, and the Complaint Form for the registration of political parties.
ECM stated the new form will significantly reduce incidents of party members being unknowingly registered to other parties, or non-members being registered to a party. The new form would require a fingerprint from a witness, a photo of the applicant, and information on the applicant's mother.
Secretary General of ECM Hassan Zakariyya said the Application for Membership of the Newly Formed Party was made after discussions with political parties and that the electoral body will only accept the new form starting from November.
ECM has been stepping up efforts to confirm the validity of party membership forms, due to the increasing number of complaints of individuals being registered as members of political parties without their knowledge. As part of the efforts, the electoral body began publishing the list of applicants in order to verify the validity of the applications before their names are included in the registry of a party.