The Maldives government has reiterated its invitation to “international stakeholders” to observe its electoral process. The country is likely to hold presidential elections in September and is in the glare of international organisations, which fear that democracy and the right to free and fair elections is being quashed.
Maldives government recently rejected a call by the United Nations Human Rights Committee to allow former president Mohamed Nasheed contest the elections. The watchdog had said that the charges of terrorism pressed against Nasheed were based on vague laws and denied him a fair trial. Nasheed, declared guilty on the charges, is at present in Sri Lanka, on political asylum.
The Maldives government has also “taken note” of a report of the EU Electoral Follow up Mission (EFM), which had visited in January and expressed concern over the lack of electoral reform in the country even as it heads for the big election. The mission was a follow up to the recommendations suggested by the EU Elections Observation Mission of 2014. The EFM lamented that neither the government, nor the opposition and even the people's majilis (parliament) had not sought to address the issue of electoral reforms and that to date, the political and institutional environment of the country is not conducive to adopting meaningful and concerted electoral reforms.
Reacting to this report, the Maldives government says “The government, however, sadly notes that while the government had presented the progress of the implementation process since 2014, this was largely disregarded in the report.” the Maldives government insists it has made a draft bill on the recommendations of the EU, demarcating the roles of the various functionaries in the elections, and registering and re-registering voters.
“The Elections Commission, on February 22, has begun the preparations for the presidential elections to be held this year. The government encourages all relevant stakeholders to offer the Elections Commission their full, unreserved support for the conduct of their work. The government would also like to reiterate its call of February 22, 2018, publicly inviting all international stakeholders to observe the electoral process,'' a statement from the Maldives government said.