Local Council Elections to be held in April, 2020

Elections Commission (EC) has announced the decision to hold the Local Council Elections in the first week of April, 2020.

The announcement was made by President of EC, Ahmed Shareef at a press conference this Tuesday.

Speaking at the press conference, Shareef said the commission has yet to decide on a specific date to hold the elections, but that the timeline will be announced soon.

“We have not decided on the exact date to hold the elections. But we have decided on a specific period. We are scheduling the election for the first week of April in 2020,” said Shareef.

He said that candidacy application will be opened in February.

Shareef said the EC plans on increasing the number of ballot boxes and reducing the number of registered voters per ballot box to increase voter convenience.

“We believe the local council elections are very hectic. Because it will take more time to announce results and ascertain results unlike the last two elections. We have therefore changed the number of voters per ballot box,” said Shareef.

He said that commission was currently considering setting the maximum registered voters per ballot box to 700.

“This means the number of registered voters will not exceed 700 at any ballot box. So, based on the previous two elections, this will mean an additional 178 ballot boxes,” said Shareef.

He said the increase in ballot boxes will also increase the number of electoral officials required to 6,000 – 7,000 officials.

EC had employed 5,000 electoral officials for the previous two national elections.

The commission estimates the total cost of the election to amount to MVR 65 million – MVR 70 million.