Over two hundred prisoners allegedly unable to register for Saturday’s election

A source within the Maafushi Prison has told Minivan News that more than 200 inmates were not registered to vote because they do not have national identity cards. The source claimed that inmates have to pay the prison department to renew their ID cards but that there are inmates in the cells who have no way to get money.

“Many of the inmates in the cells have no connection with their family or anyone to help them, so they can’t afford to deposit money to their prison account to make ID cards,” he said. “We talked to the senior prison officers about this and their reply was that inmates have to find their own ways to get money and pay for the ID card.”

He said that inmates have contacted politicians and have been told it is  the responsibility of the Home Ministry to make ID cards for all the inmates who don’t have them.