Speaker of the Parliament Mohamed Nasheed says he wishes that the Local Council Elections are held on the scheduled date without any further delay as the Elections Commission expressed concerns regarding the Health Protection Agency HPA guideline to hold safe elections amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Taking to social media platform Twitter, Speaker and former President Mohamed Nasheed said that instead of seeking reasons and technicalities to further delay the long-awaited elections, it would be best to work to hold the polls on the scheduled date.
A member of the parliament who represents MDP as the MP for Hulhumale' Constituency Ali Niyaz further supported Nasheed's statement by saying that the majority of the ruling coalition government, MDP now wants to have the council elections on the proposed date.
Niyaz said that it would be challenging to hold the polls amid an on-going pandemic but he did believe the Elections Commission would further delay the elections as a result of the pandemic.
The Elections Commission has said earlier that it is now working to hold the elections on the 10th of April this year. But had later said that the elections could be further delayed after HPA unveiled the guidelines it set in order to hold the nationwide polls amid the on-going COVID-19 pandemic.
The opposition has been pushing for the polls insisting that the government is deploying delay tactics as it has feared that the ruling government has lost the confidence to win the delayed elections.
