The Civil Court on Thursday ordered the Elections Commission to push back the forthcoming local council elections by 60 days.
The court ruling came following a petition filed by the ruling Maldives Progressive Party (PPM), citing that the party’s recent leadership dispute had hindered its efforts to prepare for the elections set for January 14.
Sitting councillors can remain in office beyond their term until the elections of new councillors, the court ruling said.
The vote will see the election of 651 members to island, atoll and city councils.
Earlier, the Elections Commission said only 13 islands will have 5-member local councils as per the amendment to the Decetralisation Act approved in July last year, and only 3 councillors will be elected in each of the remaining islands in the election. In the previous local council elections, 5 members were elected to each island regardless of the population size.
Under the amendment, the number of members elected to each local council will be proportional to the population size of respective islands. The amendment slashed the number of island council members from 925 to 589, and atoll council members from 132 to 70.
According to the amendment, only three councillors will be elected to councils of each islands with a population of less than 3000 while islands with populations over 3000 will have 5-member councils. Meanwhile, one member will be elected to atoll councils from each electoral constituency in the atoll. One member from each electoral constituency will also be elected to city councils. Male’ City Council will have 13 members, while Addu City and Fuvahmulah City councils will have 7 and 3 members respectively.