Local Elections On April 10: Elections Commission

The Elections Commission has decided to hold the Local Council Elections and the Elections for women's development committees on April 10.

The date of April 10 was announced during a meeting of the National Advisory Committee for Local Council and Elections and Women's Development Committee Elections. The Elections Commission also announced that there was no way to hold the elections after 9 May, 2021 as per the current law.

Members of the Election Commission said that there were challenges to holding the elections, even if a date had been set. Vice President of the Commission, Ismail Habeeb, the Health Protection Agency's guidelines dictate that people who were quarantined or were positive for COVID-19 would have to be brought to a special location where they could cast their vote. However, said Habeeb, the Elections Commission would not go to fetch anyone so that they can cast their vote, nor would the Commission send out a vehicle to collect them.

"The Elections Commission is not legally obliged to collect those who are quarantined at COVID-facilities so that they can vote", said Habeeb.

In addition, Habeeb said that the rules which mandated resort employees to quarantine themselves for 10 days in whichever island in which they are registered to vote also poses another problem.

Commission Member Fuad Taufeeq appreciated the difficulty of the upcoming elections, and estimated that the Commission's required travels would incur an extra cost of MVR 3 million.

The Local Council Elections had originally been scheduled for April 2020. However, due to the outbreak of COVID-19, it had been delayed by the rushed passing of a sunset law to March 2021.