The Elections Commission (EC) on Wednesday postponed a vote on The Democrats registration because of a lack of quorum after two members failed to attend the meeting.
The meeting was scheduled for 10:30 am. EC president Fuwad Thowfeek told Adhadhu that only two members, including himself, attended the meeting despite the notice being sent to all the members.
The EC has five members - president Fuwad, vice president Ismail Habeeb, Ali Nashaath, Dr. Mohamed Zahir and Mohamed Asif.
According to the EC regulation, all matters must be passed at a meeting with majority votes. The quorum is three members.
Dr. Zahir is currently in Saudi Arabia on the Hajj pilgrimage while the other two failed to attend Wednesday's meeting.
Fuwad did not announce a new date to vote on The Democrats registration.
When the issue was put to a vote during an emergency meeting of the EC on June 18, two members voted in favour and two voted against. It is understood that members Nashaath and Asif voted against registering The Democrats.
They want to form a five-member committee to evaluate the membership forms after alleging the commission's president of influencing the process of verification. They claim to have lost confidence in him.
Earlier on Wednesday, parliament speaker and former president Mohamed Nasheed resigned from the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) after accusing the government of obstructing The Democrats.
"In my view, no state agency should do anything other than encourage the formation of a political party. It is very regrettable, especially in an MDP government, to do otherwise. I am very concerned about this," Nasheed said.
The Democrats is a new party formed by Nasheed's supporters from a breakaway faction of the MDP. They want to field a presidential candidate for the September election.
President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih will contest on the ticket of MDP. Despite remaining in the governing coalition, the Jumhooree Party decided to contest separately and awarded its ticket to the party's leader Qasim Ibrahim.
Former attorney general Dr. Mohamed Munavvar, former defence minister Colonel Mohamed Nazim and former home minister Umar Naseer are also contesting in the election.
