An amendment to the Elections General Act has been proposed to hold the parliamentary election after the month of Ramadan. The amendment was proposed by Parliamentarian Mohamed Shifau, a member of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP).
The amendment proposes to change Article 43 of the Elections General Act to dictate that no election should be held on a day of Ramadan. If an election coincides with the month of Ramadan, the election shall be held 10 days after the end of Ramadan. As such, the amendment states that if an election coincides with the month of Ramadan, the Election Commission of the Maldives (ECM) shall change the deadlines for holding the election.
ECM has scheduled the parliamentary election for March 17, which is on the seventh day of Ramadan. The electoral body stated there would be administrative challenges if the election was scheduled for a later date. However, political parties have expressed over holding the election during Ramadan.
At the last meeting of the National Advisory Committee on Elections, ECM stated that it was forced to schedule the election in the month of Ramadan due to the arrangements of the relevant dates. The electoral body also denied accusations that it chose March 17 as the election date at the request of the ruling coalition, highlighting that the coalition does not want the election to be held during Ramadan.
At the meeting, Minister Ahmed Shiyam, the Vice President of Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM), said there is still the opportunity to postpone the election. He expressed willingness to support changing the election date if it is inline with the wishes of citizens.
The amendment proposed by Parliamentarian Shifau also states that ballot papers that contain a check mark opposite a candidate's name should be considered a valid vote even if another check mark is drawn over it for emphasis. In the last presidential election, ECM declared that ballot papers with additional marks on top of the initial check mark will be invalid.
The amendment also includes changes to the amounts of fines and the terms of imprisonment that can be imposed on those who are liable to fines for various reasons. The amendment will become law once it is passed by the Parliament and ratified by the President. The first parliamentary session of the year will begin on February 5.