The state does not have the finances to hold by-elections for the parliament seats made empty through a controversial Elections Commission decision, the Finance Ministry has said.

An official from the ministry told RaajjeMV that the commission has asked for budget to hold said by-elections but that it was unable to provide them with the required funds.

The official said that the Finance Ministry has responded to the commission’s request for funds.

He further accredited the ministry’s failure to provide funds to the fact that state offices are currently compiling their annual budget for 2018, adding that the period to pass supplementary budgets has passed.

Conventionally, it is the statutory commission’s mandate to acquire funds for which it had not been provided for by the state budget.

RaajjeMV’s attempts to acquire a comment from the Elections Commission had been to no avail, as none of its members had answered calls at the time of publishing.

The Elections Commission had requested that they be given a total of over MVR 1.5 million for every constituency that requires a by-election. For six constituencies, this would have been a supplementary budget of 9 million.