The Elections Commission of Maldives has accepted the candidacy of more than 2,000 individuals who applied to contest in the upcoming Local Council and Women’s Development Committee (WDC) elections.

According to Elections Commission of Maldives, applications to contest in the elections opened on 17 January and will remain open until 5:30 p.m. on 1 February. Statistics released by the commission show that 3,413 nomination forms were submitted through the commission’s main portal within the first 14 days of the application period.

Of the total submissions, 1,865 forms were filed to contest local council seats, while 1,548 forms were submitted for Women’s Development Committee positions. So far, the commission has accepted 2,888 nomination forms, including 1,556 candidates for local councils and 1,332 candidates for women’s committees.

The commission said political parties submitted 1,366 nomination forms for local council elections, alongside 496 applications from independent candidates. A total of 309 local council candidacies were not accepted. For Women’s Development Committee elections, 1,216 nomination forms were submitted by political parties and 332 by independent candidates, with 216 applications declared ineligible.

According to the Elections Commission, the most common reasons for rejecting applications include failure to submit lifetime criminal and debt records, incomplete disclosure of offences or financial liabilities, and the absence of required criminal records issued by the Maldives Correctional Service.

The Elections Commission has announced that the local council elections will be held on 4 April. Under the election, 626 councillors will be elected to island councils and 52 councillors to city councils, with an equal number of members to be elected to Women’s Development Committees nationwide.