President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has on Tuesday ratified the fifth amendment to the Local Council Elections Act (Act no. 10/2010).

The amendment to article 18 of the act, received approval from the People’s Majlis at the 17th sitting of its first session on 10 March.

The bill was proposed by MP for Addu Meedhoo, Rozaina Adam and was approved with the votes of 58 members.

Upon ratification, the act has been publicized in the government’s gazette.

According to the amendment, in addition to votes deemed invalid under Section 56 of the General Elections Act, votes cast for additional candidates other than the candidates to be elected during the Local Council Elections, will be deemed as invalid.

As per the previous legislation, votes given to candidates in other categories will be invalidated as well because the entire ballot pap is considered void.

Prior to amendment, article 18 of the Local Council Elections Act stated that, in addition to the points described in article 56(a) of the General Act on Elections, the entire ballot paper is considered invalid if the voter places tick marks against the names of candidates more than required for the specific council.

This comes at a time the Local Council Elections an the Women’s Development Committee Elections have been delayed due to the growing fears of the fast-spreading Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) across the globe.