Maldives' electoral watchdog has made a u-turn on its original decision against offering Maldivians living abroad the opportunity to vote in the upcoming local council elections slated for January.
Elections Commission had earlier announced that voting would not take place outside of the Maldives for this elections after extensive discussions with relevant stakeholders.
However, a commission member told 'Avas' on Monday that the decision has now been reversed after discussions with the National Advisory Committee.
"We discussed this matter with the National Advisory Committee, which is in charge of overseeing the election and decided that voting should be available abroad as well," commission member Ahmed Akram said.
The last Local Council Elections also held voting for 300 Maldivians living abroad. The Commission however is yet to decide on the countries it would place the ballot boxes next year.
A recent amendment to the local council Act, the number of councilors to be elected on January 14 will be down to 655 from the present 1,077.
The number of island councilors is currently 945, but the amendment has brought the number to 585. Next year’s polls would also elect 70 Atoll councilors instead of the present 132
According to the amendment, three island councilors would need to be elected from islands with 3,000 or less populations while five would be elected from islands with 3,000 or more people. Only two Atoll councilors will represent two electoral constituencies while one will be elected if the electoral constituency is more than two.
