Int’l observers and monitors yet to be issued business visas despite being included in EC’s official list

While the Elections Commission (EC) on Thursday released a list of observers and monitors approved for Sunday’s poll, some individuals on the list have revealed that that they were not granted the necessary visas to do so.

The list was included in a press release issued on Thursday, which claims that 38 delegates from 11 organizations will be international observers while a total of 26 media representatives from 14 organizations are to be monitoring the election.

However, Indian news outlet The Wire’s Devirupa Mitra said that despite her name being accredited by the Commission, that she was not granted the necessary visa to enter the Maldives.

She further noted that some other Indian journalists on the list- Amitabh P.Revi and Parul Chandra from Strategic News International (SNI), Dipanjan R. Chaudhury from Economic Times, Sidhant Sibal from WIONews and Meera Srinivasan from The Hindu- are facing the same issue as well.

Furthermore, the Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL) have come forwards with the same issue as well.

“We can confirm that at this time, none of ANFREL’s observers have received the necessary visa to be present in the Maldives for the September 23 presidential election, despite the Maldivian Elections Commission formally listing us as international observers”, said election observers’ group.

Five observers from ANFREL are included in EC’s list.

The Elections Commission also included a list of those rejected, detailing the reasons for the rejection.

Back in August, Maldives Immigration said that business visas will be granted to those that hold the required permit from the Commission.

With the publication of the list, it is confirmed that the European Union and United Nations will not be sending officials to observe the elections.

Citing a UN source, local news outlet Mihaaru had in August reported that the environment in Maldives is ‘not conducive for support’.