Malé, Maldives – Maldives Police Service has launched a special operation named “Operation BlueRay 2021” for tomorrows Local Council Election (LCE) and Women’s Development Committee (WDC) election.
Security briefing for the Local Council Election (LCE) and Women’s Development Committee (WDC) election was carried out today at Iskandhar Koshi in which Commissioner of Police, Mohamed Hameed spoke to the police officers in Malé area.
Speaking at the briefing, CP Hameed stated that they would provide safety and security in all polling stations to ensure a transparent and fair election gets carried out in the country. He also added that this was the first large scale operation being carried out by police after they started to act on the new Police Service Act and that all officers must use this as an opportunity to show the professionalism and integrity of the force.
CP Hameed also added that this was an opportunity to build trust between the public further by ensuring the safety and protection of the citizens. He also reminded all officers to abide by the constitution and laws of the country and to carry out the responsibilities responsibly.
Local Council Election (LCE) and Women’s Development Committee (WDC) election will start at 07:00 tomorrow and will be carried out until 18:00. While normal voting hours are set to be from 07:00 till 17:00, covid patients, people in quarantine and people in isolation are to vote after from 17:00 till 18:00.
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.
The Local Council Election was originally supposed to be held on 4 April 2020, but due to the alarming increase of Covid-19 cases in Maldives, the country had gone into a lockdown, and the election was delayed by a year to 10 April 2021.
The Parliament had to pass a special bill due to the implications of Covid-19 in the elections, and this bill is to be followed for all incoming elections. The Local Council Election is to be held on April 10th.
While the upcoming Local Council Elections (LCE) and Women’s Development Committee (WDC) elections will be held according to the guidelines given by the Health Protection Agency (HPA), this time more ballot boxes would be places in different areas as the HPA guidelines does not allow people to travel from one island to another. The voters will also be required to adhere to guidelines such as maintaining social distancing and wearing masks.
