The Elections Commission of Maldives has provided the funding for political parties from the state budget after months of delay.
Under the Political Parties Act, the Elections Commission is bound to give an amount of 0.1 to 0.2 percent of the state budget to political parties within the first three months of the year. A total amount of MVR 23 million was allocated for parties this year.
Ruling Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) received the highest amount of MVR 10 million, followed by the main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) which received MVR 7 million. Jumhoory Party received MVR 2.9 million while the only coalition partner of the government, Maldives Development Alliance (MDA) received MVR 2.8 million.
Meanwhile, religiously conservative Adaalath Party and Dhivehi Rayyinthunge Party (DRP) were not provided any funds.
It is noteworthy that with the new amendments made to the Political Parties Act, members who did not present their fingerprints were removed from the registry of Political Parties. With this new change, PPM has become the biggest party active in the country. Previously main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) was leading the list with a total number of 46,608. However, as fingerprints were not presented by 18,803 members, their registration forms were rejected and MDP membership decreased by nearly half with only 27,805 members remaining. In the meantime, PPM is leading with a total of 37,633 members by the end of October 2016.
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