Male’, Maldives — Attorney General, Ibrahim Riffath has decided to present a new amendment to the Sunset Act to resolve the delay in the elections as the Local Council Elections has been postponed for the second time due to the State of Public Health Emergency in the country,
Earlier in 2020, the parliament passed the sunset bill that will help authorities find a solution for the legal issues that rise with the postponement of the local council elections. According to the sunset bill, elections must be held within a year of its effectiveness. This means that the local elections needs to be held before March 09th of 2021.
However, as the State of Public Health Emergency in the country has been extended till February 3rd, the the Election Commission is facing difficulties in holding the elections on March or before March.
Riffath tweeted regarding this matter and said that the government is working on a new amended sunset bill which will help the commission overcome some of the obstructions they are facing due to the law. Riffath informed that the bill will be presented to the People’s Majilis at at the earliest.
The MDP parliament group is also holding an informal meeting to talk about how the obstructions the commission is facing due to the law can be solved without further postponing the elections. However, the exact date for the meeting has not yet been revealed.
Whil the elections were at first scheduled to be held on April 2020, the commission had to postpone the date due to the surge in the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases. Later on the elections were being scheduled to be kept on March 06th until HPA declared that the State of Public Health Emergency has extended yet again.
Although Elections Commission initially said that the elections will be postponed again, the President of Election Commission (EC), Ahmed Shareef announced on Wednesday that both the Local Council Elections and the Women’s Development Committee Elections will be held on April 3, 2021. He revealed no further details as to how the elections will be held despite having the State of Public Health Emergency in the country.
