Commonwealth to observe Maldives parliamentary election

A group from the Commonwealth will be arriving in Maldives to observe the parliamentary election in April.

According to Relief Web, President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih requested the group to observe the parliamentary election as part of Maldives’ process to rejoin the Commonwealth.

The observer group will be led by Former Jamaica Prime Minister Bruce Golding and will comprise eminent persons drawn from across the Commonwealth with backgrounds in election management, law, civil society, politics and diplomacy, among others.

The group is expected to arrive in Maldives on 30 March and return on 13 April. A Commonwealth Secretariat team led by Yvonne Apea-Mensah, Head of Africa at the Governance and Peace Directorate, will support the group.

The observer group’s report on the election will contribute to the Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland’s informal assessment of the Maldives’ re-application.

The Secretary-General said that the report will give member countries a clear view of adherence to Commonwealth values in Maldives, including democracy and rule of law and protection of human rights such as freedom of expression.

The Heads of Government will then decide whether Maldives should be invited to make a formal application to re-join the Commonwealth.

The Maldives first joined the Commonwealth in 1982 and left in October 2016, after 34 years as a Member State, after then-President Abdulla Yameen refused to abide by the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group after it called on his government to stop violating the rights of his political rivals.

Since returning to the Commonwealth is a high priority for incumbent President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, he sent a letter of interest to rejoin to Secretary-General Patricia Scotland in December 2018 and the Maldives is now in the process of fulfilling all the membership requirements to rejoin the organization.