While the elections of the 19th Parliamentary body of Maldives are fast approaching, the Anti-Corruption Commission has announced that they have begun to probe into allegations of bribery against four Parliamentary candidates.

The Vice President of Anti- Corruption Commission (ACC) Muavviz Rasheed has said this at a press conference held by the Elections Commission to announce information regarding upcoming Parliamentary elections.

While Muavviz is also a member of the special Advisory Committee assembled for the task of the upcoming election, he said that cases against four candidates have been submitted so far and that the Commission is looking into these cases.

As such, he said that one of these cases have reached completion at time. Muavviz revealed the reason for the conclusion of this case to be that there was no legal cause to proceed with an investigation into the allegations of bribery against the candidate. The Vice President of Anti- Corruption Commission (ACC) added that the investigation of the remaining three cases concerning Parliamentary candidates are ongoing.

He said that several candidates are making specific claims within the campaign process for the Parliamentary Elections. As such, Muavviz said that some of these claims may be crossing the line into acts that are deemed illegal as per the law.

Member of Elections Commission, Ismail Habeeb reiterated that any candidate that makes certain claims from the day that the candidacy is announced, cannot say that certain things will be accomplished if the candidate is to be elected. He said that this will possibly be classified as bribery.

The ACC have yet to reveal the names of the Parliamentary candidates who have been accused of bribery.