The Elections Commission has assured that it would make its annual payment of allowances to political parties before the legal deadline.
Maldives’ political parties act stipulates that the parties with more than 10,000 members are eligible for this allowance. Allowances have to be paid within the first three months of the year.
While the three-month deadline has passed, the commission says that this period is counted without public holidays and weekends, so the deadline is technically until 8th of May.
The commission is required to provide a sum between 0.1 to 0.2 percent of the state’s annual budget as allowances.
The commission will forward a request to the Ministry of Finance and Treasury. The ministry will decide exactly what sum should be allocated to each party based on their membership count.
The commission had delayed distributions to fund last year as well. In 2016, it delayed distribution due to a dispute over party membership forms and fingerprint identifications provided in them. That year, funds were distributed after September.
