Elections Commission (EC), on Monday, announced that Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) and Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) would respectively be allocated MVR 12 million and MVR 9 million from the state budget.
EC member Ahmed Akram stated that funding for MDP, which is set to receive the highest amount, was finalised after taking the number of members into consideration. Compared to MDP's membership, PPM currently has the second highest number of members.
According to the Political Parties Act, party funds from the state budget will only be granted to those with 10,000 members or more.
Out of the nine political parties registered at EC, only MDP, PPM, Jumhooree Party (JP) and Maldives Development Alliance (MDA) secured government funding this year.
EC stated that JP and MDA both received MVR 2 million. However, Akram did not reveal the number of members currently in these parties.
MDP was revealed to have a record 54,302 members, likely due to the influx of members prior to the parliamentary election which was held on April 6.
As per EC's website, until July 31, 2018, PPM was the largest party with 48,129 members. On the same date, MDP had 29,008 members and JP had 10,090 members.
A total of MVR 26.2 million will be distributed among the four parties which qualify for state financial aid. However, PPM will presumably receive funds at a later date than other parties due to issues with their 2018 annual report.
Sign In