EC needs full public confidence: Ex-President Solih

The Elections Commission (EC) must be an institution that the public has full confidence in, said former president Ibrahim Mohamed Solih today.

His comments followed the news of Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP)'s Deputy Parliamentary Group Leader and MP of Vaikaradhoo constituency, Hussain Ziyad (Fitte)'s political party membership being transferred to ruling party People's National Congress (PNC) without his knowledge.

In a statement on X (formerly Twitter), Solih accused the ruling party of misusing people's personal information to deceitfully register people to the party. He also questioned whether the Elections Commission is fulfilling its legal responsibilities.

"The Elections Commission must be a place that the public have full confidence in," he wrote.

While this is not the first time such incidents have occurred, EC also has established measure to tackle fraudulent party membership registrations. These include sending SMS notifications to individuals when their forms are being submitted, and posting membership information of the commission's website for seven days.

However, EC has since discontinued publishing the lists online, citing a lack of public engagement with the platform.

EC said the next court of action would be to integrate party membership registrations with E-Faas. This will be implemented towards the end of the year, the commission said.