AG gives green signal for revising Political Party Regulations

Sunday, January 25th, 2009

Attorney General Dhiyana Saeed has advised the Elections Commission that Political Party Regulations can be amended within the existing constitutional framework.

Speaking to Miadhu Daily, Assistant Director General of the elections Commission Mohamed Tholal stated AG Dhiyana gave the advice when asked for her legal counsel on the increasing number of complaints being received those certain political parties have submitted memberships forms with forged signatures or obtained signatures by misleading the members.

“Many have submitted complaints that certain political parties obtained their signatures by misleading them or forged their signatures, as such we have AG to provide her legal opinion on the matter, she has now given us her advice; she has said that Elections Commission can propose to amend the existing Political Party Regulations by submitting it to the Rules Committee of the Majlis, so we are now in the process of submitting the regulations for amendment” Tholal said.

In addition Tholal also revealed that late last year Elections Commission have considered the matter of dissolving political parties with membership less than 3000 and stopping providing state funds to such parties. To this end, the regulations have been revised and forwarded to Attorney General’s office for advice which has yet to be received, Tholal further said.

“But advice provided before is also actually part of this; it is also connected to political party regulations, even though Attorney General has not provided a specific reply to the matter of dissolving parties with members less than 3000, we anticipate a similar reply as given to the issue of political parties obtaining membership signatures by misleading the people; Attorney General’s Office has said that the matter is still under considerations, they have indicated that they need to study the issue more carefully, so that is why we are still waiting without submitting the regulations to Majlis Rules Committee” Tholal explained.

The issue of political parties obtaining membership signatures by misleading the people surfaced when the member lists of political parties was published last year. Names of people who never signed up for any party were also included in the listing.

When the issue of dissolving political parties with membership less than 3000 and stopping state funding for such parties was proposed by the Elections Commission and legal advice on the issue sought, the commission also granted a 30 day period to obtain the required amount of signatures.

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