An amendment has been proposed to the Local Council Election Act to avoid invalid votes.
The current laws state that a vote will be invalidated if the ballot paper has more tick marks next to candidates than the number of candidates to be elected for the council. Under this law, votes given to all positions for which the ballot paper applies to will be invalidated instead of just the specific position.
According to the bill proposed by Meedhoo MP Rozaina Adam, ballot papers that have more than the required number of votes will not be completely invalidated, but only the votes given for the specific position will become invalid.
Under recent amendments to the Decentralization Act Act, presidents of island councils, and city council mayors will be elected through a vote taken among the constituents. The new amendments also stipulate that 33% of all councils must be reserved for women.
The Elections Commission has made arrangements such that those voting for island councils must also vote for the council president, council members and female council members on the same ballot paper. For cities, the ballots will also include voting for mayor and council members. Those voting for Kulhudhuffushi city will also have to vote for the atoll council president on the same ballot. The decision to use the same ballot paper for all sectors was made by the Elections Commission to minimize the amount of time and money spent on the election.
However, according to current regulations, all votes given for all sectors will be invalidated even if one part of the vote is incorrect.
983 councillors will be elected in the local council election slated for April 4. Out of these, 370 seats have been reserved for women. Members of the Women's Development Committees will also be elected the same day.
