MDP accuses electoral body of ‘curtailing election observation’
The commission gave three working days to register representatives for nearly 500 candidates and refused to accredit several observers, the MDP said.
18 Dec 2016, 9:00 AM
The main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party has accused the elections commission of deliberately impeding efforts to observe and monitor the upcoming local council elections.
The commission gave three working days to register representatives for nearly 500 opposition candidates and refused to accredit several observers, the MDP said in a statement Friday night.
“We believe the scaling back of observers and impeding the registration process is a deliberate strategy to make it harder to detect government’s efforts to intimidate voters and rigging at the ballot box,” the party said.
According to the MDP, some candidate representatives were told they need to first participate in a workshop whilst the elections commission’s focal points on some islands refused to register representatives without offering a valid reason.
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