PNC confesses to submitting fraudulent forms

The main ruling People's National Congress (PNC) has confessed to submitting invalid forms to the Elections Commission of Maldives (EC) amid allegations of increasing membership through fraudulent forms.

The main ruling party acknowledged reports of submitting fake forms to the EC in a statement released on Tuesday.

Issues of PNC illegally obtaining personal information of several common citizens, as well as members of parliament, have been surfacing of recent. However, the party earlier denied engaging in such theft.

This is the first time PNC has admitted to stealing personal information of many members of the general public to increase their membership count by adding them to the party's registry.

In a statement released on Tuesday, PNC revealed that it has been noted that a large number of invalid, fraudulent forms were included among the forms submitted by the party.

The PNC statement goes on to reveal that the party has no way to verify the authenticity of the forms submitted on its behalf.

It also stated that although the forms were being uploaded through the party's elections portal, the inability to verify the authenticity of forms received by the party means that the stage at which a question arises about the authenticity of a form is after submitting it to the Elections Commission, which is not a challenge unique to their party.

With PNC leader and President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu calling to reach 100,000 members by the end of last year, the party carried out many activities to increase membership. Ministers, parliamentarians, heads of companies, and other political officials also competed to fill out forms and submit them to the party secretariat.

Some of these forms were received by President Muizzu and Parliament Speaker Abdul Raheem Abdulla. While the EC was processing these forms submitted by PNC, issues of fraudulent form submissions surfaced. Some of these forms had witnesses who are currently holding political positions in the incumbent administration.

It was revealed that some people who did not sign up for PNC had their personal information, photos, and fingerprints used to fill out forms and submit them, resulting in their registrations being changed without their knowledge. Photos of PNC activists filling out forms in some government ministries and companies also circulated at the time.

The scandal came to widespread attention on Monday when it was revealed that a fraudulent form was submitted in the name of Vaikaradhoo constituency MP Hussain “Fittey” Ziyad, and his registration was changed to PNC after processing the form. The EC has stated that it will take action against those responsible for the matter.

Article 49 of the Political Parties Act states that if a person's name is submitted for membership of a political party in violation of regulations, the party responsible can be fined between MVR 5,000 and MVR 10,000. This is the amount for each form submitted in violation of regulations.