Malé, Maldives – Local Government Authority has announced that the newly elected local council members and women’s development committee members would be taking their oaths online.
Speaking at the press conference held last night by Health Emergency Operations Center (HEOC), Director General of LGA, Adam Shareef told that everyone who has been elected for councils on April 10, 2021 polls will take their oaths online due to the worsening Covid-19 situation in the island nation.
While the oath taking has been planned for May 17, 2021, Adam Shareef told that they do no plan any further delays as it has already been delayed for a long time and that many sitting council members have resigned over the issue. He also added that as the Covid-19 situation was unpredictable, that the best course of action which LGA saw fit was to carry out the oath taking online on the same date as planned before.
Adam Shareef also added that oath taking will be carried out at the council secretariats while following necessary safety measures and that it’ll be seen to the public as an online meeting for those who want to witness.
He also added that judges who administer the oath or if the elected council members are not in their respective constituencies, that all would need to attend the ceremony online.
Elections Commission (EC) had previously announced that the ruling party, MDP had won 400 seats and the most competitive opposition party, PPM had won 325 seats in the local council elections that was held on April 10, 2021.
Speaking at a news conference, President of EC, Ahmed Shareef stated that out of the 804 candidates who competed for the local council elections under the ruling MDP Party, only 400 won, while 646 candidates competed against them from the opposition PPM Party, 325 had won the elections.
While one partner of the ruling MDP Party coalition, Jumhoori Party had won 23 out of 115 seats, Adhaalath party had won 11 out of 28 seats and MDA won 16 seats from the 20 candidates who competed.
According to EC, a total of 600 candidates had competed independently out of which 173 had achieved victory.
EC Shareef further detailed that while MDP has received the majority of 71 islands in Maldives, PPM won the majority of 64 councils in the elections. On the other hand, independent candidates has won the majority of 31 islands, Jumhoori party won 2 islands majority and Adhaalath party won the majority of one island.
Shareef stated that in total, the ruling MDP party had received only 43% of the seats in the local council elections and PPM won 34.9%, followed by independent candidates who took over 18% of the seats. The remaining two percent and one percent was taken by the Jumhoori Party, MDA and Adhaalath party respectively.
The Mayor for Addu City, Fuvahmulah City and Kulhuduffushi City was won over by candidates of MDP party. Along with this, 18 seats of the City Council, 11 seats of the Atoll Council President, 71 seats of the Island Council President, 155 seats for Council members and 142 seats allocated for women were taken by the ruling party.
While a candidate of the Opposition PPM party won the Mayoral position for Male’ city, the party won 16 chairs for City Council, 07 seats of the Atoll Council President, 51 seats of the Island Council President, 121 seats for Council members and 139 seats specialized for women.
A total of 2,234 candidates competed in the Local Council Elections that was held this year. EC Shareef noted that this is the most amount of candidates ever to participate in a Local Council Elections throughout the history of Maldives. However, only 68% of the Maldives population voted in the elections out of which only 39% of the people eligible to vote in Male’ area had voted.
