The Election Commission (EC) has decided once again to dissolve the Maldives Reform Movement (MRM).

The EC said in a post today that the MRM has not reached 3,000 members as required by the Political Parties Act.

According to the EC website, as of 27th July, MRM had a total of 2,234 members.

Last year, the Election Commission issued two notices to MRM for insufficient members. They later dissolved MRM as it did not reach the number of members stipulated in the law.

MRM however challenged the decision and filed a case in the Civil Court on May 25, 2023. The Civil Court issued an interim order on May 29, 2023. A subsequent interim order issued on June 23 of that year said the EC’s decision to dissolve the MRM could not be reviewed.

The Civil Court ruled on February 13 this year that the MRM had tried to reach 3,000 members on the notice issued by the Election Commission on February 23 last year.

However, the EC did not inform the parties about the change in the number of members despite the fact that under Section 28 of the Political Parties Act, it is required to confirm the number of members once a month and give notice to the parties.

“There is no legal liability for MRM to bear the loss of what the Election Commission has not done," they stated.

The civil court ruling further said that the EC had decided to dissolve the MRM in violation of Article 43 of the Constitution. Therefore, the EC ruled that the decision to dissolve the MRM was illegal by canceling the letter and the letter not to conduct any activities.

The civil court also ordered the EC to pay MVR 500,000 as legal costs to the MRM within seven days. The Election Commission said it would appeal the civil court's ruling but did not appeal to the High Court.