Instant political party exits in force from January 1

The Elections Commission (EC) has announced that they have facilitated instant exit from political parties for general members from yesterday onwards. 

A senior official of the commission stated that general members of political parties, excluding those holding senior party positions and members of parliament, will now be granted immediate exit from parties once they submit applications via the EC's online portal. 

"As the Political Parties Act, this opportunity is now available to everyone except those filling senior party positions and MPs. They will now be able to immediately leave political parties without undergoing any additional processes," the official said. 

Applications to leave political parties can be submitted on the EC's portal at my.elections.gov.mv.

In the case of MPs and those in senior party positions, their applications via the portal to leave political parties will activate an alert to EC officials. The commission will then verify necessary information and review the requests before exit from parties are granted. 

"There are some people [those in political party positions and parliament members] who we have blacklisted under the Anti-Defection Act. All these people are identified on our system now," EC Vice President Solah Rasheed previously said. 

Until now, even for general members, leaving political party membership took a 14 day period from the date of application. 

The commission has also decided to grant a 30 day window for parties to process new membership applications. If the party fails to submit a response within this window, the policy has now been amended to include the applicant on the party register. 

Currently, there are nine political parties on the commission's register, with 158,044 members registered across them.