As stated earlier, the Elections Commission has decided to delay the timeline for parties and individuals to file candidacy for September’s presidential elections.

Commission President Ahmed Shareef made the announcement at a press conference on Thursday, where he revealed that opportunity to submit candidacy will now be open from 23^rd July to 4^th August.

While EC had previously said that they will be taking in submissions from 15^th to 24^th July, it had emphasized that there could be a change to these dates.

Shareef said that the change was made as per the attorney general’s advice, as incumbent President Abdulla Yameen was sworn in on a later date than stated in the Constitution. Article 301 (b) states that an elected president “shall take and subscribe the oath of and assume office on 11 November”.

Article 110 states that “elections for the office of President shall be held within one hundred and twenty days to thirty days prior to the expiry of the existing presidential term”. President Yameen took the oath of office on 17^th November 2013.

The first round of the long-awaited presidential election is to be held on 23^rd September and if required a second round is to be held on 10^th October.

While changes were brought to both the Presidential Elections Act and Elections General Act by ruling party lawmakers in the past week, Shareef said that they will be publishing the subsequent changes to the policies “next week”.

As announced earlier, opportunity for reregistration will be opened on 17^th July while complaint submission is underway.

Furthermore, noting that both opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) and Jumhooree Party (JP) had held their national congress after discussions with the Commission, Shareef said they ‘were in adherence to law’.