Council Elections: Votes of 5,808 will not be confidential, additional chance to re-register

Elections Commission (EC), on Wednesday, warned that the votes of 5,808 voters in the upcoming local council elections will not be confidential, and has provided an additional opportunity for them to re-register to vote at other polling stations.

The voters are exposed to lack of vote confidentiality following re-registration to locations outside of their electoral district. The 5,808 voters in question are the sole voters from their electoral district who are re-registered to vote in the respective locations of their choosing.

“This means that the 5,808 voters have registered to vote in a manner which leaves their voting location exposed,” said Ahmed Shareef, Chairman of EC.

The EC has released a list of the 5,808 voters in question, and has provided them with the opportunity to re-register to another location by 3 pm on Thursday, if they wish.

The local council elections will be held together with the women’s development committee elections on April 4.

Voters will elect 980 people to councils, and 369 people to women’s development committees in four cities and 18 islands.

According to EC, 2,400 candidates have applied for the council elections, while 1,817 have applied for the women’s development committee elections.