Local Council Election slated for April 4

Local Council Elections will be held on April 4, 2020, the Elections Commission (EC) has announced.

EC is working to conduct a seamless election different from other years as the local council election is bound to be more complicated and challenging than both the presidential and the parliamentary election.

In this regard, the commission has decided the maximum number of votes that can be cast to one box as 700. While this would increase the number of ballot boxes used in the election by 178 boxes, the number of officials will also exceed 7000.

However, only a specific amount of ballot boxes as decided by the Elections Commission will be placed in other countries, resorts and industrial islands.

Ballot boxes will be placed abroad if over 150 people residing in each country registers for voting, while boxes will be placed in resorts where atleast 50 people register for voting. Additionally, ballot boxes will be placed in industrial islands if a minimum of 25 people register for voting.

The election is estimated to cost between MVR 65 to 70 million. EC is preparing to propose amendments to the law that would allow monitors and candidate representatives to bring in their mobile devices, tablets and voter's list into the voting center.