Parliament has sent Local Council Elections Bill to an 11 member committee for reconsideration.

Parliament decided to send the bill back to the committee in the first sitting of the second session of 2010 held yesterday, as President Nasheed has refused to sign the bill into law, and has returned back to parliament for reconsideration.

President has raised three issues in the letter returning the bill; firstly as per the bill a sizable number of the voting population would not be eligible to vote, secondly the increased administrative costs for having elections in Fuah Mulah and thirdly possible disruption of services as elections would be monitored by civil servants. President’s letter was read out by Parliament’s Secretary-General Ahmed Mohamed.

Members who spoke at yesterdays meeting said that all the Maldivians above the age of 18 should be eligible to vote in this election.

Transparency Maldives has called on the Parliament to revise the bill as according to returned version of the bill, 25% of voter population would not be eligible to vote. According to previous version only those who reside in the local constituency could vote in the election. In the previous elections, 25% of the voters were registered to vote in different constituencies than they are originally registered, the source for Transparency Maldives’s figure.

Yesterday’s meeting also decided to send the President’s nominations to Tax Appeal Tribunal to the Economic Committee of the Parliament.

Sixty-six MPs were present in the meeting held after a long recess.

Via:Miadhu