The election day processes were transparent and generally well-administered, reveals Transparency Maldives.
Stating that the observers in Transparency Maldives observer network played a “crucial” role in ensuring the transparency of the electoral process in the Maldives, the local NGO expressed its gratitude to the nearly 350 observers and volunteers during the Parliamentary Elections held on Saturday.
TM went on to express it’s belief that an independent observation effort at this scaled promotes greater levels of trust in the country’s electoral processes.
Without a margin of error, TM’s team of observers were able to generate results through qualitative and quantitative data collected on systematic random sampling.
Highlighting that the election was peaceful, TM congratulated the people for their “spirited engagement” in the democratic process.
Some of the key findings of the anti-corruption NGO notes that 97 percent of polling stations had closed within the first hour of closing time, that the voters registry was overall “very clean” even though it had a few cases of eligible voters not having their names in the registry,
It also noted that voting was temporarily halted in six percent of the polling stations out of which 85 percent of the cases were interventions at the direction of the Presiding Officer while 8% were interventions by an unruly voter.
A statement by the NGO reads that police had entered 21 percent of the polling stations. It however stated that 78 percent of the cases were at the invitation of the presiding officer as allowed.
“Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) was represented at 87% of the polling stations during the count, while Jumhooree Party (JP) was represented at 31% of the polling stations with Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) and Congress Party representatives present at polling stations were 37% and 18% respectively” the statement reads.
Candidates were represented during vote counting, making the process transparent and adding to its credibility, added TM.
TM also observed that 88 percent of the polling stations had marks other than the checkmarks on the ballot papers.
They also recommended all relevant institutions to monitor, investigate and prosecute vote buying through implementation of existing legal provisions and recommended on the Parliament to bring urgent reforms to laws to “better address the issue”.
Highlighting that Maldives is among the two countries ranked at 184 out of 193 countries highlighted in the Inter-Parliamentary Union’s index of parliaments in terms of gender balance, TM stated that only 35 women out of 395 candidates.
“It is imperative that relevant authorities identify and address the barriers for women’s equal political participation and work towards increasing women’s representation in the Parliament.“ wrote TM.
Congratulating all the winners of the Parliamentary Elections, TM urged relevant actors to reform the electoral systems to improve and increase confidence in electoral systems of the country.
