New terms and conditions set for political parties

New terms and conditions have been set in the new Political Parties Registration, Conduct, Funding and Disclosure Decree which restricts public officers including union executives from starting off a party and political party funding restrictions for all organizations including companies, unions and NGOs.

Attorney General and Minister for Elections Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said all new and existing political parties need to register as a party under the decree which commences from this Friday.

All parties must register and if they do not, then they commit an offence under the new decree.

The proposed parties should have non-discriminatory policies.

A person who has been convicted for an offence for a period of six months or more in the last five years cannot be a party official when the new decree comes into effect.

Sayed-Khaiyum said the 16 existing political parties have been given 28 days to re-register from this Friday however they need to meet various terms and conditions set out in the decree.

The name of the proposed political party should be in the English language, 5 people have to make the application to register the party and they need 5,000 members to meet the criteria.

Previously only 180 members were needed to form a political party.

From the 5,000 members, the proposed party must have 2,000 members from the Central Division, 1,750 from the Western Division, 1,000 from the North and 250 from the Eastern Division.

The party should also have a branch office in each division.

The registration fee has been set at $5,005.

Sayed-Khaiyum said the restrictions for public officers have been set after much consideration.