The Elections Commission (EC) has stated that they have so far been unable to register former President Abdulla Yameen’s new party, the People’s National Congress (PNC), due to the number of unverified membership applications.

Spokesperson Ahmed Akram said that EC’s work to verify the membership applications is not akin to them obstructing PNC from being registered.

This is in regards to a tweet from MP Nihan Hussain Manik, who said that the EC is trying to stop them from registering PNC.

A new party has to present 3,000 membership applications before it can be registered. However only 1,950 of the initial 4,000 membership applications presented by PNC were confirmed as valid and so MP Abdul Raheem, who is playing a large role in registering the party, has presented 1,100 more applications to the EC.

Regarding the issue, Akram told RaajjeMV that they are in the verification process and have found discrepancies with the fingerprints and dates in the earlier applications.

Some have claimed that Yameen is forming PNC in fear that he might lose leadership of Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM).

EC member Ismail Habeeb said that some of the membership applications submitted by PNC also contained applications to join PPM.

At a PPM press conference, Abdul Raheem acknowledged that there were three membership applications for PPM but then accused EC of hindering their work to register PNC by refusing to verify membership applications.

PNC has now submitted a total of 5,100 membership applications, out of which 2,300 have been verified. It now needs 700 valid applications to be registered.