The main ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) has removed the names of individuals from the voters’ list who are not registered to the party.
The voters’ list published by MDP in December 2022 contains the names of 57,714 members. However, ECM stated that its official registry shows that 57,257 members are registered to the party.
Explaining the inclusion of over 400 names, Vice Chairperson of MDP Ibrahim Waheed said they were individuals who had submitted their membership registration forms before December 18. He said that ECM had received the forms and that MDP considers anyone a party member after they submit the registration form.
Speaker of Parliament Mohamed Nasheed, who is contesting in the primary election, submitted complaints to MDP regarding the inclusion of 457 names in the voters’ list. Vice Chairperson Waheed said the party has received four complaints from Nasheed and that the issue regarding the unregistered names in the list has been resolved, as individuals who were not in the party registry on December 18 will not be included in the permanent voters’ list. He said the issue arose due to the changes made to the policies of the Elections Commission of the Maldives (ECM), noting that the electoral body previously registers new members when the forms are received but now takes more time to verify the forms. He added that the party registry was not changed to exclude Nasheed’s supporters.
Furthermore, Vice Chairperson Waheed also said that MDP has received 905 complaints regarding the voters’ list. He said the complaints were regarding 683 individuals who were previously registered to MDP but are now not registered to any party and 212 individuals who are registered to other parties.
MDP has announced that the primary election to determine the candidate for the upcoming presidential election will be held on January 28. In addition to Nasheed, incumbent President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih is also contesting in the primary.