It has been revealed that newly declared city, Kulhudhuffushi will have a mayor and six councilors following the upcoming Local Council Elections.

While the Elections Commission of the Maldives (ECM) is working to elect a council to the newly declared city, the entire city has been divided into six constituencies and a councilor will be elected to each alongside a mayor.

Two seats have been allocated for women in the six-member council.

While the ECM is to elect six councilors to Kulhudhuffushi City, it will be electing 18 councilors to capital city Malé, 12 councilors to southernmost Addu City and six councilors to Fuvahmulah City.

ECM earlier revealed that six seats have been allocated for women in the Malé City Council, four in southernmost Addu City and two in Fuvahmulah and Kulhudhuffushi, each.

Kulhudhuffushi was officially declared a city on 31 December and it was implemented from 1 January onward. This came at a time the island’s council asserted that the next election to be held in the island must be a local council election pursuant to the Decentralization Act.

EC allocated 12 seats for women in councils of the three cities in early December and it comes in line with the government’s decision to apportion 33 percent of council seats to women, as part of their work to ensure gender equality. Parliament passed to bring amendments to the decentralization of administrative divisions on 5 December. The amendments state that two seats will be allocated for every council comprising of five councilors and three seats for women for councils comprising of seven councilors.

The Local Council Elections 2020, slated for 4 April, is expected to be “different in every way”.