Malé, Maldives – Elections Commission (EC) has stated today that patients positive for covid-19 can vote at the local council elections after other voters are done voting.
The Commission’s acting Secretary General Hussain Zakariyya said on a PSM show last night that a request has been sent to the President’s Office to gazette a policy so that individuals in quarantine due to covid-19 and people positive for the disease do not lose their right to vote.
While normal voting hours are set to be from 07:00 till 17:00, covid patients are to vote after this time- from 17:00 till 18:00.
Hassan stated that these individuals will not be transported to voting centres by EC , but rather by the Health Protection Agency (HPA) and special task forces in islands. He added that the commision will provide assistance for voters during the allocated time.
“What we guarantee is that, quarantined individuals can also vote. They can go ahead by following the set policies, thus no loses their right to vote”
Acting Secretary General of Elections Commission (EC), Hussain Zakariyya
While President of Elections Commission, Ahmed Shareef had guaranteed that everyone turning 18 by April 10, can vote in the upcoming, EC revealed that they have released updated voters list now. Elections Commission also added that out of the 273,182 eligible voters, 5,134 are those who turned 18 within the year by which the election was postponed.
Elections Commission also revealed that 2,264 candidates will run for council and 1,670 candidates will run for Women’s Development Committees (WDC) in the election which is to be held on April 10, 2021.
