Male’, Maldives —The City Council of Male’ has informed that they will be imposing fines on those who display or advertise campaign materials in the Male’ city without the permit from the council.
A statement released from the Male’ city council read that as a large amount of candidates will be competing in the upcoming local council elections, the council has decided to allow all the competing candidates to display their posters and other campaign materials free of charge.
While the council has created a guideline to issue permits to display the campaign materials, the statement noted that if any campaign material is attached in the Male’ city without a permit, the responsible person will be fined between MVR 1,000 and MVR 2,000 for every day the advert remains without permit.
Along with this, the council has announced that after the deadline of the campaign material is reached, the council will be charging MVR 2,000 from the responsible person for every day the poster remains displayed in an area.
According to the council, if a candidate wishes to receive permit to display their campaign material, then they must provide the council with the written statement which proves that the said candidate is competing in the elections. Along with this, the candidate is also asked to provide the council with a colored hard copy of the campaign material that the candidate wishes to attach.
If the campaign material consists of any thing related to the religion, the the council advices the candidate to take permission from the Ministry of Islamic Affairs before the candidate submits the campaign material.
The Council has also stated that if any damage is caused to the general public or any place due to the campaign banners and other materials then the people who attached the aforementioned content must take full responsibility of the act.
