Civil Court rules MLSDP was dissolved unlawfully

Civil Court has ruled that the Maldives Labor and Social Democratic Party (MLSDP), founded by lawyer Abdulla Haseen in 2018, was dissolved unlawfully.

In June 2022, Elections Commission (EC) decided to dissolve the MLSDP, stating the party’s failure to meet the requirement of having at least 3,000 members as mandated by the Political Parties Act. In response, the party filed a civil suit in 2023, claiming the decision was unlawful.

The Civil Court ruled yesterday that, at the time the EC issued a three-month notice for the MLSDP to meet the minimum membership requirement, the party already had over 2,700 members. Following the notice, the MLSDP recruited more than 300 additional members and submitted their forms to the commission, which the EC accepted, indicating the validity of those submissions.

According to the judgment, when such a notice is issued, a party is only required to make up the shortfall in membership needed to reach the minimum threshold. In this case, MLSDP not only met the shortfall but exceeded the required number within the given period. Therefore, the court found that the EC’s decision to dissolve the MLSDP was unlawful.

However, the ruling did not specify whether the MLSDP would now be reinstated. The party was originally formed in 2018 under the leadership of lawyer Abdulla Haseen.