Parliamentarian Ali Niyaz has revealed efforts are underway to amend the Constitution of Maldives in order to extend the current term of local councils until new councilors can be elected.
The local council elections were originally scheduled to be held on April 4. However, following the declaration of State of Health Emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Elections Commission of Maldives (ECM) initially postponed the elections to April 18, which is the latest date to conduct the elections according to the law. Since then, the government has submitted a bill to the Parliament of Maldives to allow the elections to be postponed to January 2021.
Speaking to PSM News regarding the legislative changes proposed by the government, Parliamentarian Ali Niyaz noted it is possible elections could still be further postponed beyond January 2021 as the situation of COVID-19 keeps on escalating. Niyaz said the parliament, along with the government, will work on devising a plan that will reduce the damages to the government and the people of Maldives. In this regard, he said efforts are underway to amend the constitution in order to extend the current term of councils until new councilors can be elected.
2,435 individuals had applied to contest in the local council elections, while 1,817 individuals applied to contest in the women's development committee elections.