Elections Commission of Maldives (ECM) has requested to approve amendments to the General Elections Act before the upcoming local council elections in an effort to reduce invalid votes.
President of ECM Ahmed Shareef said voters will be provided with two ballot papers and people will have to tick against four candidates in the council elections ballot paper. Shareef urged voters to familiarise themselves with the ballot paper to avoid casting invalid votes.
The head of the electoral body explained under the current elections regulations the ballot papers will be deemed invalid should voters tick against more candidates than necessary. Shareef said if candidates mistakenly tick in against two candidates contesting for mayor, the whole ballot paper is deemed invalid although the rest of the vote for the council members has been cast correctly. He said the law needs to be amended to reduce invalid votes.
ECM has welcomed the amendment submitted to the regulations by the administration and has called on the parliament to amend the regulations swiftly. The amendments proposed by Parliamentarian Rozeyna Adam state any additional votes cast will only annul the section of the ballot paper keeping the rest of the vote valid.
ECM has called candidates and parties to aware public on how to cast their votes on the ballot paper. While ECM has called on parties and candidates to play their role, the institution has also been running awareness sessions to explain to the public how to cast the vote.
ECM has planned to distribute an information flyer along with the electricity bills in addition to distributing a leaflet to each household.