Committee approves clubbing WDC by-elections annually
The finance ministry has already decided to increase the EC budget for the year due to the increasing number of by-elections.
By
Mohamed Muzayyin Nazim
Parliamentary committee on decentralisation has approved an amendment to the law to allow by-elections to Women's Development Committees (WDCs) to be held once a year.
As the decentralisation law currently stands:
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By-election should be held within a maximum period of 60 days in case of a vacant WDC seat
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The Election Commission (EC) had earlier complained in parliament about the increase in the number of members resigning and the high cost of frequent by-elections.
On Wednesday, the Decentralisation Committee reviewed and concluded two bills submitted by MDP MP from Velidhoo constituency Mohamed Abdulla Shafeeg on behalf of the government to the Decentralisation Act and the Local Council Act to reduce the number of by-elections. The committee concluded:
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WDC by-elections to be held simultaneously, for all vacant posts, once in a year
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Hold by-elections for local councils as is; that is, if there is no one year period remaining for the term, elections should be held within two months of vacancy.
The amendment also proposed to make by-elections to local councils annual. However, the decentralisation committee did not support it, and decided to remove clauses related to reduction in by-elections to local councils in the Decentralisation Act amendment bill.
As reasons for the decision to drop these clauses, the committee report read:
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In lieu of the views expressed by members on the issue at parliament
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The committee members noted that this was not an important change for now
The amendments to the Decentralization Act include reducing the number of WDC elections:
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Local Government Authority (LGA) should inform the EC of vacancies within 14 days
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A member should be elected to the seat falling vacant within 365 days or one year
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However, in the event of quorum loss, elections have to be held within two months
The decentralisation committee decided to approve the WDC amendments. Therefore, from the date the amendments are passed by the parliament and ratified by the President, the EC will not be barred from holding all by-elections on an annual basis, except in the event of quorum being lost.
Addu Meedhoo MP Rozaina Adam also introduced a bill in June to amend the Law to allow WDC by-elections to be held once a year. The bill empowers the atoll council to hold these by-elections. It was under the supervision of EC, but the bill is still in the committee.
Till June, the EC had spent MVR 1.4 million to conduct by-elections for women's committees. From the state budget, the commission was allotted MVR 1.5 million for elections.
The EC budget for the year is expected to see a raise of MVR 458,628. According to the finance ministry, the increase in the elections budget was necessitated due to the fact that funds given to parties had to be included in the election budget as well as by-elections related to local bodies that are to be held.
