Entire Day Coverage of MDP by PSM Unlawfully at Low-Cost

As Local Council Elections come about this Saturday, State Media has sold a significant amount of time and coverage to ruling party MDP unlawfully at extremely low-cost.

MDP has planned to have a full day of activities as it is the last day of campaigning for LCE. The activities commenced with an overseas trip by party leadership to Rasdhoo on a fishing boat.

Since then, PSM live coverage has been given to MDP non-stop along with their policies and panel discussions about their campaigns.

Dhiyares News contacted Director of PSM Ali Khalid for a comment and he stated that this was timeslots sold to the party according to commercial rates and that other parties also have the choice to purchase time on air as well. Dhiyares News inquired exactly how much time was sold to the party, Khalid stated that most of the on-air time of Thursday and Friday has been bought by the party. Dhiyares News further inquired about the cost of this time and Khalid stated that currently the sum total is 293,000 Maldivian Ruffiya’s worth of on-air time.

In commentary to Khalid’s statement, PPM Spokesperson Heena Waleedh has stated that PSM did not inform PPM that timeshares on-air were being sold to political parties and that PSM has actively taken part in validating the current government, President Nasheedh and President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih’s comments and does not give the same priority to the Opposition.

According to Public Elections Regulation Section. 30 Sub-Section (C), more than 10% of any and all allotted time to a candidate cannot be sold or assigned to any political party.

Sangu TV’s Managing Director Ibrahim Waheed (Asward) has stated that regular rates for one hour on Sangu TV is 45,000 Maldivian Ruffiya and another anonymous manager of a TV station stated that their regular rates were 50,000 Maldivian Ruffiya per-hour on-air.

Opposition Coalition states that they are not provided equal opportunities to campaign for Local Council Elections and that they do not consider these elections fair.