Local council elections scheduled for April 2020

The fourth local council elections of the Maldives will take place during the first week of April 2020, the Elections Commission announced on Tuesday.

A date has yet to be determined, the electoral body told the press.

EC chief Ahmed Shareef briefed the press about planned administrative changes, including a new cap of 700 voters per ballot box, which would increase the number of boxes and election officials. The commission expects to have 178 new ballot boxes and to hire up to 7,000 polling officials, up from 5,000 for previous municipal elections, Shareef said. 

Elected island, atoll, and city councils with three-year terms were introduced in the Maldives for the first time under a landmark decentralisation law mandated by the 2008 constitution. The first elections were held in February 2011. Ahead of the third elections in May 2017, parliament revised the law to reduce the number of councillors to 653 from more than 1,000.