400 removed from primary voters' list on Nasheed's request
MDP's complaints committee looked into the increase in the number of members in the party after receiving the complaint from Nasheed.
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By
Mariyam Umna Ismail
With people signing up for MDP just as their primary is about to be announced, the party has decided not to allow around 400 members whose names are not named in the election commission's list to vote in the party's presidential primaries and remove them from the electoral rolls.
The committee's decision came on a complaint filed by party president and parliament speaker Mohamed Nasheed, who is contesting the 28 December primary. One of the issues raised by Nasheed when the deadline for filing complaints for the voters' list ended at 4 pm on Sunday was:
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While MDP had decided that only those who were part of the EC's registry as members as of 18 December could vote in the primary, and an additional 457 names were included when the voters' list was released.
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Nasheed faction claims that the addition of members was done to gain undue advantage to Nasheed's rival candidate, senior MDP leader and President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih
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He asked to close their voting access
Speaking at a press conference held by the organizing committee of the primary affairs this Monday, MDP’s Deputy Chairperson Ibrahim Waheed said that the complaints committee looked into the increase in the number of members in the party after receiving the complaint from Nasheed. Ibrahim Waheed said that the committee's observations revealed:
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Membership submission to the Elections Commission adds to party's standing
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But now the applicants are included in the party's list only if their nomination is gazetted and no complaint is received
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When MDP got a week to file complaints, they added to the voters' list only the forms that were delayed due to the process.
"Therefore, the process was delayed and after Nasheed’s campaign team made the complaint, the committee decided that those who were not members till December 1 could not be included in the permanent list of voters," he said.
Committee member Ahmed Abdulla Afeef said on Monday that since the National Assembly had already decided that a member of the party would be accepted only if they are included in the EC's list, those who are not part of the EC's list will not be included in the party's electoral roll.
Apart from not being able to match the EC's registry and the party's voter list, Nasheed's next submits were:
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Prior to the announcement of the primary election date, president Ibrahim Mohamed Solih's support forms began to be signed from 5 December
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The primary was declared before the national assembly’s presidential election monitoring committee was formed
Based on the complaints, the committee concluded that the announcement of the primary for the selection of the committee was not an issue as it had been done by MDP in the past and the basic rules do not prohibit it. It was also decided that it was not a valid complaint that the supporters of President Solih had started signing the support form early-on as the committee had sent support forms to both the candidates on 1 December.
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