The Elections Commission of the Maldives (ECM) has launched an online portal to submit membership applications for political parties.
ECM amended the guidelines for political parties to require individuals to submit their membership application forms to Simedhi Portal in order to get registered with a party. Individuals will still be allowed to submit their forms directly to the electoral body and forms submitted to the portal will be open for complaints in order to determine their veracity.
The amendments also require parties to store their own membership forms instead of ECM. The electoral body will sign agreements with parties for them to keep the forms stored for up to 10 years.
ECM has been making changes to the process of registering members to political parties in order to reduce the number of incidents where individuals are unknowingly registered to parties. The electoral body has stated that its efforts have resulted in a significant decrease in the number of complaints regarding the issue.
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.