Membership forms submitted by former leaders of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) to set up a new party called The Democrats will be processed this week and a decision will be conveyed before the Eid holidays, the Elections Commission (EC) said today.
In response to a question from Adhadhu, EC vice president Ismail Habeeb said the processing of the forms submitted to register The Democrats was now at the final stage. That involves calling a certain number of people for verification of the forms, he said.
Once that is done, the information in the forms will then be entered into the EC's data maintenance system and checked again.
"We're expecting that the party formation meeting can be authorized or that an answer can be given about the forms," Habeeb said.
The minimum number required by law for the formation of a political party is 3000. After the EC authorized the formation of The Democrats on May 24, the party conducted activities in Male' and elsewhere in the country to gather signatures.
After that, 3650 forms were submitted on June 1.
The decision to form the party was announced on May 17 by MPs and senior MDP officials from the 'Fikuregge Dhirun' faction formed by former president Mohamed Nasheed amid the political strife within the MDP. The form seeking authorization to set up the party was submitted under the name of Henveiru Hulhagu MP Hassan Latheef on May 21.
