The main ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) has published the voters’ list for the primary election.
The registered MDP members were reduced from 92,000 to 54,000 after the MDP National Council decided to accept the official registry kept by the Elections Commission of the Maldives (ECM) instead of the one maintained by the party. The removed 39,911 members were given three months to verify their registration.
The voters’ list published by MDP contains the names of 57,714 members. However, ECM stated that its official registry shows that 57,257 members are registered to the party.
Speaking to PSM News, Vice Chairperson of MDP Ibrahim Waheed explained the inclusion of over 400 names by saying that they were individuals who had submitted their membership registration forms before December 18. He said that ECM has received the forms and that MDP considers anyone a party member after they submit the registration form. He further said that he expects the registration forms to be processed before the primary election and that their right to vote will be revoked if the forms are not processed in time.
Meanwhile, Vice President of ECM Ismail Habeeb said that the electoral body will approve any form if the party has completed the necessary administrative tasks but that it will only approve the forms after the conclusion of the time period allowed to submit complaints. He said that the time period for submission of complaints for some of the forms expires on January 9.
President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih and Speaker of Parliament Mohamed Nasheed are contesting in the MDP primary election to be held on January 28.