The Elections Commission of the Maldives (ECM) has recorded a significant decrease in membership registrations since making changes to the forms.
ECM began accepting the new membership forms on November 15, 2022. The largest number of membership forms are submitted in December and the electoral body recorded 22,398 forms submitted in December of 2021. However, the submissions have decreased to 1,013 forms in December of 2022, which is a 22-fold decrease compared to the same month the previous year.
Vice President of ECM Ismail Habeeb said that the changes made to the membership forms have also resulted in significantly fewer complaints and that it is now much easier to verify the forms.
ECM has strengthened the verification process by requiring membership forms to be submitted with information on the individual’s mother and a fingerprint of a witness. Parties are also required to submit a photo of the individual that is different from the photo on the ID card and ECM also sends a phone message to the individual to notify them of the process.