The government has proposed amendments to the Elections General Act. The amendments were submitted to the Parliament of the Maldives by Parliamentarian Ibrahim Muizzu on behalf of the government.
Among the proposed amendments to the act, the deadline for submitting financial statements of candidates contesting for elections has been relaxed. The law now requires candidates to file financial statements within 21 days of the election date. However, the proposed amendment states to extend the period to one month. In addition, the government has proposed to change the period for notifying of the death, resignation, or dismissal of an official election agent. The proposed amendment to the law requires the election to be notified within a maximum of 48 hours in such a case.
The proposed amendments also include changing the existing provision that a polling station must have a number of ballot papers that do not exceed 1% of the number of registered voters. The proposed amendment requires the polling station to have a maximum of one additional ballot paper if the number of registered voters is less than 100 individuals.
A further amendment was proposed to make it possible for journalists licensed and registered by the Elections Commission of the Maldives (ECM) to monitor the polling stations.