The Joint Opposition parties has accused the Elections Commission (EC) of working outside its legal boundaries and said it will not disclose information on the opposition parties to the commission.

Jumhoree Party (JP)’s secretary general Ahmed Sameer said this at a press conference held by the Joint Opposition on Tuesday after the parties boycotted their meetings with EC to discuss the upcoming presidential election.

Sameer said that EC lied about holding the meeting to discuss the election and showed EC’s invitation letter to the journalists at the conference, saying that the commission had never talked about the election in the letter and instead requested information about the opposition parties.

Sameer said that the opposition parties will not abide by the EC at a time when the commission’s legitimacy is being questioned. He said that opposition parties have also notified that they will not be joining the meetings.

He also said that EC has ignored the opposition parties’ repeated requests to hold political activities, and that the parties have still not received state funds for March.