Main ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) has opened the opportunity for those interested in contesting for the Kulhudhuffushi City Council in the party’s primaries for the upcoming Local Council Elections 2020.

This comes at a time the Elections Commission of Maldives (ECM) has publicized the constituencies for the Local Council Elections.

MDP revealed that the opportunity has been opened from Saturday onwards and the deadline has been set at 2pm on 16 January.

The ECM allocated six constituencies for the newly declared city, out of which two constituencies have been allocated for women; central-north and central-south of Kulhudhuffushi.

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”.