The Transparency Maldives (TM) has expressed concern over the lack of a public awareness campaign for the April 4 referendum on merging the presidential and parliamentary elections.

In its pre-election legal review, the TM found that while the Elections Commission (EC) met the legal deadline under the Public Referendum Act to publish the information paper, the commission also noted that it faced challenges in creating public awareness adequately.

"No arguments against the amendment appear anywhere in the official voter information package because the presidential decree pathway in the law requires only pro arguments to be included. Consequently, voters faced a constitutionally significant question with only the minimum information mandated by law, rather than a balanced presentation of both supporting and opposing views," it stated.

The TM highlighted that the EC formally identified 6,176 voters whose ballot secrecy was at risk because too few voters were registered at their assigned ballot boxes, but the "affected voters were given a window of less than 48 hours to re-register at a different box."

The majority of them live in resorts, industrial islands, prisons and remote islands where internet access is difficult to obtain.

The TM said there is no practical and transparent mechanism to monitor campaign funding or spending, detect violations, or ensure accountability.

The local council elections and Women's Development Committee (WDC) elections are also scheduled to be held on April 4. A total of three ballot papers will be given to each voter.

A total of 294,937 citizens are eligible to vote in 226 constituencies.