Parliamentary Committee on Public Accounts has decided to meet with members of Elections Commission of the Maldives (ECM) to discuss the issues related to the budget provided for the upcoming Local Council Elections (LCE) and Women’s Development Committee Elections (WDCE).
ECM recently submitted a letter to the Parliament of the Maldives, highlighting the difficulties in carrying out the elections under the current budget while following Health Protection Agency (HPA)’s guidelines for the elections. ECM has stated an additional USD 2.9 million is needed to the current election budget, which is at USD 3.2 million.
ECM has provided justification on why an additional budget is needed, highlighting the need to increase the number of ballot boxes and officials in order to carry out the elections as per HPA guidelines. As such, ECM noted the number of ballot boxes required for the election has increased from 532 to 735, including 68 in the Greater Male’ Region alone. ECM said over 8,000 officials are needed to conduct the elections.
The local council elections are currently scheduled to be held on April 10. The elections were postponed last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.