Issue of Being Able to Vote for a Place You Don’t Live in: Fuad Weighs In
Photo: ECM
The issue of permanent address is a contentious debate among Maldivians. And it has especially been pronounced in the context of upcoming Parliamentary elections scheduled to happen next year.
We first spoke about it in 2009, and we raised that issue with different MPs on various occasions, especially when it came to local council elections. https://t.co/ZZO6BqZpI2
— Fuwad Thowfeek (@FuwadThowfeek) October 4, 2023advertisement
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From national ID cards to phone lines, permanent address is an information that is always required of all locals. Permanent address has seeped deep into every service we apply for, either government or private.
The truth is, close to half of the Maldivian population are migrants. Meaning, they live in islands that they were not registered to at birth. Therefore, the essence of democracy gets muddled when you can vote for a parliament member set to represent a constituency that you no longer are a part of.
An X user wrote to Chairman of Elections Commission of Maldives (ECM) saying, “For Majlis 2024 thousands of people will vote for MPs who don’t represent where they live, we should be talking about this NOW.”
Fuad responded to this comment informing that discussions on this issue dated back to 2009 with several Members of Parliament.
“We first spoke about it in 2009, and we raised that issue with different MPs on various occasions, especially when it came to local council elections,” he wrote.
This query underscores the importance of fostering a robust democratic process that ensures voters’ voices are accurately reflected in the country’s legislative body.
