Election Commission provide state funding to political parties

Elections Commission has handed over the funds from the state budget to all registered political parties, as called for in the Political Party Regulations, despite its intention to stop providing funding to political parties operating without minimum membership of 3000. In this regard, Elections Commission has provided state funding to some 12 parties duly registered and operating in the country.

According to Assistant Director General of the Elections Commission Mohamed Tholal, the funds were issued following advice from Commission’s sub committee on legal matters, the committee had said that providing the funding will not be an issue, we had provided funding the already existing regulations, as such state funding had been provided to 12 political parties, which means that there is currently no party without state funding” Tholal said.

Currently there are a total of 13 political parties on the political parties register maintained by the elections commission. No funding had been provided to the most recently registered Dhivehi Gaumee Party (DGP) as the Political Party Regulations sets a minimum period of operation to be eligible for state funding.

Out of the 12 parties which received state funding some 4 parties do not have the minimum membership of 3000 required for its registration. The parties are Social Liberal Party (SLP) Poverty Alleviating Party (PAP), People’s Party (PP) and Maldivian National Congress (MNC).

The highest amount of money was given to Dhivehi Rahyithunge Party (DRP). The party received some Rf.3.3 million. DRP has a membership of 30,815. Second is the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) which received Rf.2.25 million. MDP has a membership of 19,392. In third place is Jumhoory Party (JP) which received Rf.1.21 million. JP has a membership of 8,134 members. Islamic Democratic Party (IDP) is in fourth place and received Rf.1.06 million as it has a membership of 6,481. Adhaalath Party, the party of the religious scholars, received Rf.1.02 million; Maldives Social Democratic Party (MSDP) received Rf.794, 895 while People’s Alliance (PA) received Rf.765, 166.

Out of the parties which do not have membership of 3000, People’s Party received the highest. Based on the current membership of 2,790 the party received Rf.717, 582 members. Maldivian National Congress (MNC) and Poverty Alleviating Party (PAP) based on their current memberships of 2,639 received some Rf.703, 684 each. Social Liberal Party (SLP) based on their current membership of 1,149 received Rf.566, 545.04.

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