Maldives' electoral watchdog Tuesday ruled out a re-extension on the deadline for candidatures for the upcoming local council elections.
Elections Commission had originally set the deadline until October 27 but had extended it until December 1 due to requests by several political parties.
Secretary General Ahmed Ali said the commission was presently reviewing the 937 candidatures.
Despite the civil court ruling delaying the polls by two months, Ali said no decision to re-extend the candidature deadline has been made.
The civil court had last week postponed the council polls originally slated for January 14 by two months.
Ruling Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) filed the case seeking to delay the upcoming council polls by two months citing that the ongoing rift within the party had impeded its preparations for the elections slated for January 14.
The divisions within the ruling party stem from a dispute between the elder Gayoom and his half brother President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom.
After a single hearing in the case, the court had rejected the country's electoral watchdog's warning that a delay would result in millions of taxpayers money being wasted and could set a dangerous precedent for future elections, to rule in PPM's favour.
The case had also argued that the party database and other key documents that had been reported missing after the handover, which had also hampered its preparations for the elections.
As the party would face irrevocable loss if it contested the elections on the scheduled date, PPM had urged the court to postpone the elections by two months.
The ruling party also pointed that several elections in the past had also been put off the scheduled date.
Countering the party's arguments, the Attorney General's office lawyer representing the elections commission in the case insisted that past decision is not a plausible reason to postpone the upcoming elections.
According to law, the Elections Commission must hold the local council elections 30 days before the end of the present councilors’ term -- which means the commission must hold the elections in January as per the constitution, as the term of the councilors will be up in February.
The commission has now appealed the ruling.
According to 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.
