Political parties launch last minute re-registration drive, ahead of 4:30pm deadline

All eligible voters who wish to vote on Oct 19 somewhere other than their permanent address must re-register using the new fingerprint forms.

Voter re-registration will close at 4:30pm today. Forms are available at all island council offices, Addu City Council departments, diplomatic missions and at www.elections.gov.mv. In Malé forms will be accepted at the Elections Commission’s registration center on Handhuvaree Hingun.

Check your registration status online, or by SMSing 1414 ‘VIS ID#’, or call the hotline on the same number.

The Elections Commission has opened up a 24-hour re-registration window for all eligible voters, after the Supreme Court ordered the EC to disregard re-registration efforts for the annulled presidential elections, and restart the entire process with fingerprinted forms for all voters who wish to vote in a location other than their permanent address.

With the new ruling, the EC opened up a 24-hour window for fingerprinted re-registration starting at 4:30 pm on Friday, October 11 and closing at 4:30 pm on Saturday, October 12.

Political parties have started re-registration drives throughout the country with hundreds of volunteers working around the clock filling out forms, copying identification documents and submitting forms to the EC headquarters.

On October 7, the Supreme Court annulled the first round of presidential elections held on September 7 2013, citing electoral fraud, and ordered the EC to hold a revote by October 20. In its verdict, the apex court provided guidelines for the revote including fingerprinted re-registration forms.

However, with only 12 days for the new polls at the time of the verdict, and more than 65,000 registered to vote in locations different to their permanent address in the annulled first round, the EC said re-registration would only be required if a voter would be voting in a different location than that already registered for in the annulled vote.

But the Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM) filed a complaint at the Supreme Court on Thursday claiming the EC was not following the SC guidelines.

The Supreme Court then opened at midnight on October 10 and issued a second ruling, ordering the Elections Commission to disregard previous reregistration efforts and restart the entire elections re-registration efforts.

Read the 16 point Supreme Court guideline here.