Male’, Maldives – A total of 46 candidates have withdrawn from the local council elections to be held in Maldives during the year 2021.
According to the statistics published by the Elections Commission (EC), a total of 2,435 candidates, which account for political parties and independent candidates have sent in applications to contest in the elections. However, 46 have withdrawn their candidacy, leaving 2,388 candidates remaining.
As per the data, the highest number of withdrawals came from the from the ruling party, Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), after 15 candidates to their names back. Opposition party, Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) also has six withdrawals so far while Jumhoory Party (JP) has five withdrawals and 20 withdrawals among independent candidates.
The opportunity to withdraw candidacies was opened up by the Elections Commisson on July 23rd, via the ‘Candidacy withdrawal form for Local Council and Women’s Development Committee Elections’.
This local council council election was also to be held simultaneously with the Women’s Development Committee (WDC) elections. However, both elections were postponed due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
