Supreme Court has ruled on Thursday that the Elections Commission (EC) had acted wrongfully in rejecting the candidacy application form submitted by an individual for the upcoming parliamentary election.
Elections Commission had rejected the candidacy form of independent candidate Aishath Afnaan who had applied to contest for the Keyodhoo constituency seat with the backing of former President Abdulla Yameen. EC had quoted as reason for rejection that the applicant had failed to disclose the official agent's offence record and debt record with the application.
Afnaan then submitted a case to the Supreme Court, asking the apex court to find this decision wrongful and to provide her the opportunity to contest in the election.
Supreme Court's ruling issued on Thursday stated that the EC has the opportunity to notify the applicant if their is any information missing before the window for applications closes.
It said that that the EC had acted against the law as it had not granted this opportunity to the candidate by notifying them of missing information prior to the closing of the application window, and refusing to accept the application form.
With this ruling, the Elections Commission is now obligated to allow Afnaan to contest in the parliamentary election.
In addition to Afnaan, three other candidates are contesting for the Keyodhoo constituency parliament seat, from Maldivian Democratic Party, People's National Congress and The Democrats.
One other rejected applicant submitted a case against the EC at the Supreme Court. In this applicant's case, the EC had stated that the agent did not meet the required criteria. In this case, the Supreme Court had ruled in favour of the EC.
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