Speaker of the Parliament Mohamed Nasheed's campaign team has sent a letter to the Chairperson of MDP Fayyaz Ismail outlining his recommendations ahead of the MDP Primary scheduled for next Saturday.
The team highlighted 20 points in its letter to Fayyaz in order to ensure a fair and objective Primary.
The letter said that these points need to be followed to successfully hold a free and fair election.
Some of the recommendations include;
- Displaying a list of eligible voters of each ballot box near the voting booth and ensuring that both the candidates of the Primary have signed the list.
- At all the voting stations, before the voting begins, the ballots must be opened, counted, and recorded in front of the candidates' representatives, and the number of ballots received before voting begins.
- Voting officials would read out loud the queue number, full name, identity card number, and permanent address of each voter
- Phones should not be allowed into the voting stations
- To ensure that the ink used to mark the fingers of the voters is not easily wiped off
- Do not allow voters to take pictures of the ballot before or after voting
- Do not allow voters to show or display a ballot after writing a checkmark on it
- If a voter has drawn any symbol other than a check mark, the ballot should not be counted
- Six representatives from each candidate should be allowed inside the voting station and two representatives should always be present near the ballot box
- Candidates' representatives should be allowed to use phones near the ballot boxes
In the letter, Nasheed's team noted that the first 8 points noted are practiced by the Elections Commission and that they were international best practices.
While Nasheed's team have submitted a letter to ensure the fairness of the Primary, they have been making accusations saying that the Primary would not be fair or objective.
