Parliament election: 9 candidates rejected, 4 withdraw candidacy

Elections Commission (EC) states they rejected the candidacies of nine candidates from the 381 candidates who filed their candidacies for the upcoming parliamentary election – deeming them ineligible – while four candidates have withdrawn candidacies.

Speaking at a ceremony held at Dharubaaruge on Friday to order the names of candidates – EC’s Vice Chairperson Ismail Habeeb said the number of candidates now contesting in the parliamentary election has been reduced to 368.

EC has not yet disclosed the names of the candidates who were rejected for ineligibility.

As per Habeeb, the candidates who withdrew the candidacies were MDP’s candidate contesting for Mulah constituency, PNC’s candidate contesting for Gadhdhoo constituency, and independent candidate contesting for Kinbidhoo constituency and Central Henveiru MP Ahmed Rasheed who was contesting for a new term on The Democrats’ ticket.

Ahmed Rasheed has not yet disclosed the reason behind the decision to withdraw his candidacy. 

Speaking further, Habeeb said that the 368 candidates contesting in the parliamentary election include 327 men and 41 women.

Although this year’s parliamentary election has more constituency than the last one in 2019 – it was noted by EC that the number of candidates who filed their candidacies to contest in this year’s election are lower than in 2019.

Habeeb detailed that 407 candidates filed candidacy for the 2019’s parliamentary election. The commission rejected the candidacies of five candidates while 16 candidates withdrew candidacies. Therewith, a total of 386 candidates contested in that year’s election.

Prior to this, EC that the only 10 percent of the candidates in this year’s parliamentary election amounts of women. The highest number of female candidates are from The Democrats with 13 female candidates.