Maldives' electoral watchdog on Wednesday urged more public cooperation after receiving a solitary complaint three days after the voters list for the upcoming presidential elections was announced.
Elections Commission had said the preliminary list contains 263,183 eligible voters and warned that several names of the deceased could be present on the list due to a delay in receiving the information from the department of national registration.
Key dates for presidential polls
- June 10: Publicize voters list
- July 10: Close voters list for complaints
- July 15-24: Open the elections for interested candidates
- July 17: Open for re-registration
- August 9: Decide candidate number
- September 23: Voting day
The commission on Wednesday urged the public to use the remaining week or so to submit any complaints they may have over the preliminary list.
"We have always had great public support. Though we've officially received only one complaint, we've been seeing a lot people complaining and criticizing the voters list on social media. So this means there are complaints. So we urge everyone to officially submit their complaints to us," commission member Ahmed Akram told AVAS.
The commission meanwhile had announced that the crunch elections would be held on September 23 while it would open the elections for interested candidates from July 15.
Incumbent president Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom is seeking re-election amid unprecedented political strife in the archipelago.
Former home minister Umar Naseer has also announced his intention to stand for the elections and already launched his campaign as an independent candidate.
The main opposition leaders including former presidents Maumoon Abdul Gayoom and Mohamed Nasheed along with Jumhoory Party (JP) leader Gasim Ibrahim and religiously conservative Adhaalath Party (AP) leader Sheikh Imran Abdulla inked pact to form what they called a 'reform alliance'.
With the candidacy of the four leaders - all convicted and serving sentences on questionable charges in serious doubt, the united opposition had announced plans to nominate a single candidate for the upcoming presidential elections.
However, the coalition now seems to have fractured with Nasheed contesting and winning the highly disputed presidential primary held by his party last week.
Elections Commission had said it would not accept the result insisting that Nasheed remains a convicted criminal who is constitutionally ineligible to contest.
Nasheed however, remains hopeful that the government would yield to international pressure and allow him to stand for the elections which now appears to have created massive divisions within his own party.
The commission itself has been dogged by both local and international censure as it fends off allegations of bias against the opposition.
