The Elections Commission (EC) on Tuesday amended the general elections regulations to detail the process for considering votes to be invalid.
Section 39(a) of the regulations was previously a provision with details for determining a vote to be valid. However, under the revisions made by the EC, the name of the section was changed to invalid votes and the circumstances for invalidating a vote were detailed.
Speaking to Adhadhu about the amendments, EC Vice President Ismail Habeeb said the EC studied how to reduce invalid votes due to concern over the increasing number of invalid votes.
The changes made to the regulations were based on the findings, Habeeb said. In light of the experience of the presidential election, criteria approved by the commission for determining an invalid vote has been explained during the training of officials for the parliamentary elections, he said.
"[The amendment was made] to reduce invalid votes as much as possible based on the spirit of the law and the intention of the voter. With a few exceptions, everyone comes to cast a valid vote," he added.
Votes to be counted as invalid under the amendment:
- Votes on a ballot other than the ballot prepared by the EC
- Votes without a checkmark or tick in the box next to the name of any candidate
- Votes determined to have been cast illegally
- Votes where the chosen candidate is uncertain
- Votes with a checkmark for more than one candidate
- Votes with other text and drawings in addition to the checkmark in the box next to one candidate's name
- Votes with more than one checkmark in the box next to one candidate's name
- Votes with checkmarks in colors other than blue or black
The number of invalid votes increased in recent elections. There were 7,888 invalid votes in the second round of the presidential election and 402 invalid votes in the Male' city council by-elections.
A social media campaign was also carried out during the presidential election campaign to encourage the public to cast invalid votes.
