Elections Commission of the Maldives (ECM) has revealed the Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM) had registered the most members without their knowledge.
Statistics from ECM in the past five years show that the electoral body received complaints that 11 political parties registered 1,208 members without their knowledge and that PPM was the biggest offender with 391 unlawful registrations. The main opposition party registered the highest number of members unlawfully in 2019 with 166 individuals being registered without their knowledge that year, which makes up 32% of the complaints received by the ECM.
Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) registered the second-highest number of members without their knowledge with 213 unlawful memberships in the past five years. Maldives Labour and Social Democratic Party (MLSDP) registered the third-highest number of members without their knowledge with 145 unlawful memberships, and Jumhooree Party (JP) has the fourth-highest with 144 unlawful memberships.
The statistics also show that Maldives Development Alliance (MDA) registered 74 members, Adhaalath Party (AP) registered 66 members, Maldives Third-Way Democrats (MTD) registered 63 members, Maldives National Party (MNP) registered 57 members, Maldives Reform Movement (MRM) registered 30 members, Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) registered 13 members, and People’s National Congress (PNC) registered 12 members without their knowledge.
ECM has been stepping up efforts to reduce invalid and unverifiable party membership applications. As part of these efforts, the electoral body announced that individuals who have been registered at a party without their knowledge can officially submit their complaints to the commission and that each complaint will be reviewed and legal action will be taken if required.
ECM also announced the decision to issue fines of USD650 to political parties for each unverifiable party membership application submitted to the commission. ECM has also started publishing the list of individuals registering at political parties as part of efforts to strengthen the verification process of party membership forms submitted to the commission.