Parliament of Maldives has passed the amendment bill to the Local Council Elections Act, removing the need to nullify the whole ballot paper if there are any invalid votes among the different voting categories on the paper. The amendment was passed in today’s parliament sitting, with votes from 58 parliamentarians.
The amendment bill to the Local Council Elections Act was proposed by Parliamentarian Rozaina Adam. The bill was passed with an amendment proposed by Parliamentarian Ahmed Saleem during the deliberations held on the bill.
MP Rozaina stated the main reason for proposing the bill was to avoid the invalidation of the whole ballot paper because of one invalid vote across the different voting categories that will be used in a single ballot paper during the local council elections. Noting the island council ballot paper will include votes for the councilor as well as the president of the atoll council, president of island council and the council seat allocated for women, MP Rozaina stated the amendment will allow all the valid votes in the ballot paper to be counted even if there is an invalid vote in one category. She stated only the invalid vote will be annulled, instead of invalidating the whole ballot paper.
Parliamentarians who deliberated on the bill mainly spoke in favour of the amendment. Speaker of Parliament Mohamed Nasheed stated the amendments brought upon the act would facilitate easier counting for polling officials, while also reducing the number of invalid votes in the election. Highlighting the importance of the bill, Nasheed stated the bill would be submitted to the president today for ratification.
The local council elections (LCE) along with the women’s development committee (WDC) elections are scheduled to be held on April 4.