Tonight while on Twitter I came across a Tweet from Miadhu News (online) a daily News paper in based in Male'. http://www.miadhu.com/2010/05/local-news/pa-membership-drops-less-than-3000/ The News Article was about PA, Peoples Alliance, a registered Political Party in the Maldives.
The site says
Former President’s half-brother, Abdulla Yaameen’s Peoples Alliance membership has dropped less than 3000. According to law each political party would require 3000 signatures before the party can be registered.
It further states that
According to latest statistics by the Elections Commission, PA’s membership total is 2986, 14 members short of legal amount for registration. However, there is no clause in the relevant laws which would disband the party even if they fell short of 3000 members after the party is registered.
What can I say ... We wanted a party system in our country ... today we have a so called Multi-Party democracy. But do we have the necessary laws and regulations for a Multi-party system?? Are we following it right.
Simply a Political Party can be made with 3000 members in Maldives. The Elections Commission will approve any parties registration based on the number of members, which has to be 3000 at the time of registration. However there is no law stating what the course of action should be if a party does not have 3000 members after its registration ... this doesn't sound right.
A Multi party system is a system in which two or more political parties have the capacity to gain control of government separately or in coalition. This I support!! But the idea of this happening in Maldives has less chances ... I do not believe that for a country of a total population of only 300,000 should have a party for every 1000 peopel (this is the situation of some parties in Maldives) !!!
The lawmakers of this small democracy should make laws on this as soon as possible, If a party can be registered with a membership of 3000 then a party should also be DISSOLVED in it has less than 3000 members ( the number required for membership ) !!! this is only fair!!
Today the country has over 13 Political Parties ...
| Party | 29-04-2010 | 08-05-2010 | 13-05-2010 | 20-05-2010 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AP | 5677 | 5632 | 5487 | 5419 |
| DRP | 32599 | 33596 | 38445 | 38254 |
| DQP | 3280 | 3266 | 3140 | 3072 |
| GI | 3894 | 3867 | 3613 | 3583 |
| IDP | 5064 | 5014 | 4746 | 4678 |
| JP | 6835 | 6782 | 6351 | 6204 |
| MDP | 34530 | 34420 | 35033 | 36218 |
| MLP | 1582 | 1572 | 1419 | 1411 |
| MNC | 2148 | 2120 | 2030 | 2018 |
| MSDP | 2148 | 2763 | 2628 | 2589 |
| PA | 3267 | 3241 | 3021 | 2986 |
| PP | 2447 | 2425 | 2378 | 2365 |
| SLP | 931 | 930 | 886 | 875 |
Source: Elections Commission Maldives
As per the second round of Maldivian Presidential elections there are 209,294 eligible voters in the country ... Do you think that 209,294 voters would require 13 different political parties/views (the more political views the better but still 13 different parties)??
hmmm ... Another of my thoughts ... well once again I ll leave it to you ...
Comments
Maeed, political arena as just like the blowing wind, at one moment it may blow as hard as u r blown off and the next moment there cud not be no wind at all.
having few members doesn't mean they are politically in active.
SP such a parties who controls the balance of the parliament such as PA.
politically active doesn't mean the protest that the MDP and the Drp does out in the public. the pressure that a party makes to the government for betterment of the country makes that politically active or inactive.
so in my view its the least of our concern about political parties having few members.
we should be more concern on the corruption which the huge or giant parties involved in.
boundaries for political parties.
any way i like the post
Cheers
Whether a party should be disbanded or not should not depend on the number of people it has, except in extreme cases; like maybe when the membership drops below 1000, even after time has been given to recruit more people, that part should be changed to an organization or something instead of political party.
Cheers