High Court rejects MDP case against EC

High Court has rejected the case filed by Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) over the issue of nullified candidates for upcoming Local Council Elections.

This was the second hearing of the case and the case was thrown out of Court after MDP had failed to attend hearing. Judge Ali Sameer announced that MDP had not informed of a reason for not attending the hearing.

Therefore, the Court decreed that MDP had given up on the trial and concluded the hearings. The Court also decreed that this case cannot be refiled in Court.

The first hearings were held on Thursday. Party’s Secretary General Anas Abdul Sattar attend the hearings.

MDP filed the case stating the decision by Elections Commission (EC) to invalidate their candidates had flouted the electoral laws. The case noted that the candidacies were declared invalid after accepting candidates’ forms and had called on the Party to refile the forms following the decision to postpone the elections. The case had requested the Court to overturn EC ruling.

MDP had also filed for a stay order on EC ruling until a decision was reached through the Courts.

Elections Commission had initially accepted candidature forms of over 900 candidates, for the Local Council Elections. The Elections were initially scheduled for the 14th of this month. The Elections were delayed following the Civil Court ruling to postpone it by two months.

Civil Court reached this decision, after the faction of Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM) led by President Abdullah Yameen filed suit to postpone the elections. The Local Council Elections will now be held on 8th April.