The Elections Commission (EC) has extended the deadline for filing nomination papers for the upcoming local council elections.
The deadline is pushed back from November 15 to December 1.
Mohamed Shakeel, a member of the Elections Commission, said the decision to extend the deadline by 15 days was made at a meeting of its advisory committee following request from several political parties.
The commission has also opened re-registration for those wishing to vote away from their home islands in the local council elections.
According to EC, observers and representatives of the candidates can complete their registration during the course of the voter re-registration process.
The vote, slated for January 14, will see the election of 651 members to island, atoll and city councils.
According to the commission, only 13 islands will have 5-member local councils as per the amendment to the Decetralisation Act approved in July last year, and only 3 councillors will be elected in each of the remaining islands in the election. In the previous local council elections, five members were 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.