Maldives Joint Opposition has lodged a complaint at the Elections Commission over some individuals being re-registered to vote elsewhere, despite not seeking to do so. 

Senior officials of the opposition spoke to the media after lodging complaint, and did that the commission members had informed them that the issue had come to their attention as well and that they are looking into the matter.

Main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP)’s Deputy Chairperson Ali Niyaz stated that several problems had been noticed in the re-registration process, adding that those who have been residing in their islands their whole lives have been registered to cast their votes from different regions of the globe.

According to Niyaz, the coalition had submitted the complaint along with evidence.

“Commissioner (Ahmed) Shareef told us that this matter is being looked into and that the issue had come to their attention as well. He said this has happened possibly because somebody submitted a faulty form. This means there are some individuals who have submitted faulty forms. We did tell them that this is not the only issue that we are uncertain about. We shared with them our suspicion that the database and server of the commission has been compromised. However, they have given us their assurance that this will not happen” said Niyaz.

Former housing and environment minister, Mohamed Aslam stated that several people’s voting locations have been misplaced, highlighting that 40 such cases had been reported.

“We have said this once and we will continue to say this, the ruling party is influencing the whole procedure of re-registration for the upcoming Presidential Election. Today our worries have surfaced more with these issues. We appeal on everyone to assure the validity of their re-registration” stated Aslam.

The former minister further stressed on the immensity of this issue, stating that those behind these misconducts must be sought and action must be taken against them.

Jumhooree Party’s spokesperson Ahmed Sameer stated that the commission had revealed that faulty forms will be revealed with the identity card numbers, and that the coalition had requested for the EC to provide a convenient way to check the validity of forms and the issued with them.