Elections Commission of the Maldives has officially opened opportunity to contest in the upcoming local council elections and the women’s development committee elections.

During a special ceremony to make the announcement on Tuesday, ECM officials revealed that the deadline for application submissions is set at 20 February.

Applications for contesting in the women’s development committee elections will be accepted until 24 February, said ECM.

Vice President of the commission, Ahmed Akram stated that this will be the first time the ECM is scheduled to hold two different elections during one day, after the amendments made to the Decentralization Act.

Akram further revealed that 1,912 candidates will be elected in both elections this year, 980 out of which is contesting for the local councils and 930 for women’s development committees.

ECM expects to receive over 6,000 candidacies and will station about 7,000 officials to be active near the ballot boxes, an estimate total of 545 ballot boxes will be placed. The commission will be announcing an exact amount of ballot boxes to be placed, following the re-registration process.

Commission member Ismail Habeeb urged all candidates to follow the disciplinary criterion set for contestants.

Habeeb went on to add that the commission requires efforts from political parties in order to build trust in the hearts of the people, for ECM.

Both elections are slated for 4 April 2020.