The Elections Commission has said that only 13 islands will have 5-member local councils as per the amendment to the Decentralisation Act approved in July last year.
According to the commission, only 3 councillors will be elected in each of the remaining islands in the upcoming local council elections.
Previous local council elections saw five members elected to each island, regardless of the population size.
Under the amendment, the number of members elected to each local council will be proportional to the population size of respective islands.
The amendment slashed the number of island council members from 925 to 589, and atoll council members from 132 to 70.
The government says the amendment would save over MVR5 million every month on salaries and allowances.
According to the amendment, only 3 councillors will be elected to councils of each islands with a population of less than 3 thousand while islands with populations over 3 thousand will have 5-member councils.
Meanwhile, one member will be elected to atoll councils from each electoral constituency in the atoll.
One member from each electoral constituency will also be elected to city councils. Male’ City Council will have 13 members, while Addu City and Fuvahmulah City councils will have 7 and 3 members respectively.
The vote, slated for January 14, would see the election of 651 council members to island, atoll and city councils.
The commission earlier said that nominations for the election would be opened on October 26, and the exact number of ballot boxes to be placed in the election would be decided with the finalisation of the voter registry.