Regulation allowing EC members to retire with allowance annulled by Finance's order

The amendment to the regulation of the Elections Commission of Maldives (EC) which allows retirement with an allowance for members of the Elections Commission who has served two terms has been annulled today.

An announcement made by the commission today revealed that the amendment established on February to allow salaries of employees and commission members alongside remuneration for overtime to be issued by the commission itself has now been rescinded.

Addressing this, Member of the Elections Commission, Hassan Zakariyya stated that the amendment was annulled in accordance with the Ministry of Finance's order.

"The Ministry decided that the salaries and allowances of EC members will be determined by the parliament and therefore, that the regulation cannot be altered like this. The regulation wasn't being followed even before the Ministry ordered as such," said Hassan.

The policy mandates that together with the retirement status, the employee can be excused from work if they are over 55 years of age and has offered over 15 years of service to the Commission. If the employee was elected as the Commissioner of EC while working as an employee of the institute, these years will also be considered in deeming the duration of service.

However, a member of the Commission need not be 55 years to retire. The policy highlights that with 10 years of service to the Commission as a member, retirement, together with lifetime benefits, will be arranged.

Within this new policy, the bulk remuneration pay disbursed to the employee will include the determined stipend for the employee's rank as well as the amount multiplied from the duration of their service. Furthermore, 75 percent of the determined salary of the employee's latest rank at the Commission will be issued as remuneration to the employee as a monthly lifelong retirement payment as well.

However, if the years of service exceeds 15 years, 15 years will be considered for this bulk remuneration pay.

Independent Institutions had proposed to arrange a retirement package for members of these commissions. However, this arrangement remained unadvanced through the parliament.