An Exclusive Interview with Ex-Elections Commissioner Mr. Fuwad Thowfeek

Ex-Elections Commissioner of Maldives, Mr. Fuwad Thowfeek. Photo by: Google Images

Following is an exclusive interview given to Adam Mohamed of Adamington Online by the Ex-Elections Commissioner Mr. Fuwad Thowfeek, via an email after a Direct Message (DM) session of Twitter. This is the first exclusive Interview given to a blog by Mr. Fuwad Thowfeek after the controversial judgment against him by Supreme Court of Maldives during the Presidential Elections 2013.

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Adam Mohamed: Tensions between the judiciary and the Elections Commission arose after you spoke out against some controversial judgments by the Supreme Court during the 2013 Presidential Election. As a result the Supreme Court of Maldives sacked you as country's election commissioner and gave a suspended jail term for contempt of court. In the verdict of Supreme Court it says that you disrespected the court by not following election guidelines set out by the judges. Can you explain the practical difficulties & challenges that you were facing with the Supreme Court guideline as the main organizer of Presidential Elections 2013?

Mr. Fuwad Thowfeek : The guidelines set by the Supreme Court were not practical and illogical. But, we at the Elections Commission tried our best to follow the 16 point-guidelines set by the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court annulled the Election held on 7 September 2013 by the verdict given on 9th October 2013 saying that the 1st Round should be held before 20th October and if a 2nd Round is required, that has to be held before 3rd November 2013. 

11 days’ time for the 1st Round was too short to make all arrangements including the preparation of voters’ list after re-registration, printing ballot papers, transporting them to all islands and polling stations abroad which included UK, India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Singapore.

The Supreme Court has ordered to obtain the signature of the candidates or their representatives on all voters’ lists. There were 470 polling stations, and each polling station has got 3 copies of the voters list making a total of 1410 with an average of 500 names (20 sheets) on each list making them 28,200 sheets. There were 3 candidates by that time as President Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik has withdrawn his name after the annulment of 1st Round. I said we can make the arrangements for the candidates or their representatives to come and sign but we cannot make them to sign. When we requested the candidates to come and sign on the lists, only President Mohamed Nasheed did come and sign, but President Abdulla Yameen and Honorable Qasim Ibrahim did not come to sign the lists. Once the time allocated to signing of the lists were passed, we tried to dispatch the lists for the polling stations, and the police services blocked our transportation. Police did not allow us to proceed with the election. All the arrangements costing over twenty millions of Rufiyaa were wasted.

Again, we worked to hold the election on 20th October, and the same was repeated. President Mohamed Nasheed cooperated and signed but, President Abdulla Yameen and Honorable Qasim Ibrahim did not cooperate. They did not answer when I telephoned. Their representatives hardly answer our calls, and they asked us to call another person of their party. The allocated time for signing the lists when passed, we tried to dispatch them, and again we had lot of arguments with police including heated conversations between me and the Police Commissioner Abdulla Riyaz. I also asked for support from Minister of Defense and National Security Colonel Mohamed Nazim.

But, the Police didn’t stop the voter’s lists without the candidates’ signature in the Local Council Elections 2014 and Parliamentary Elections 2014. I said in the media that although we could get the candidates or representatives signature in the Presidential Election with three or four candidates, it is not possible to get the signatures of 302 candidates in Parliamentary Elections and over 2500 candidates in Local Council Elections. Even today, I tell that the Supreme Court is not the best institution to make guidelines for specialized technical functions like national elections. 

The other issue rose was regarding the voters list. According to the Constitution of the Maldives, the Elections Commission was responsible to compile the voters’ list. The Elections Commission has the authority to use all available data from all government institutions. Therefore, lists from the secretariats of all the Island Councils were obtained and compared with the corresponding lists received from the Department of National Registration. All the records were verified and in cases where there were discrepancies or inconsistencies, EC officers stationed in each island were instructed to visit the houses and get the first hand data from the households. For further verification, lists of the people died during the last five years were obtained from the Ministry of Health, and also from the cemeteries in Male’. All possible checks were done, and all deaths were removed from the lists. The Elections Commission was able to prepare the most updated and best possible voters list ever prepared.  

But, the Supreme Court ordered us to get the lists from the Department of National Registration. The Supreme Court said that was the correct list but, we know there were many errors in it and we made all necessary corrections. The Supreme Court saw the corrections as errors in our list. Therefore, when we followed the list from the Department of National Registration, there were many complaints from the media and I was questioned by media and parliament. I answered them as I answer now, and the Supreme Court interpreted as it was contempt of court. 

Adam Mohamed: During the Presidential Elections 2013, when you were the Elections Commissioner you’ve been accused by some political parties for taking sides with MDP? What is the truth & are you a man of integrity?

Mr. Fuwad Thowfeek: The truth was that President Mohamed Nasheed from MDP and President Dr. Mohamed Waheed from Gaumee Ittihad Party had cooperated the Elections Commission at all times while President Abdulla Yameen from PPM and Honorable Qasim Ibrahim from Jumhooree Party tried to block all our activities. I know PPM and JP wanted more time, and they were looking for excuses to delay the elections. But, our constitution has very clearly given a time schedule for all the activities of the Election. I very clearly told President Yameen and Honorable Qasim that I had to follow the time lines given in our constitution. Since, we did not give up that easily, the Supreme Court extended the term of president indefinitely as wanted by PPM and JP. This is an act against our constitution. Anyone can understand it from the Constitution.  

President Yameen and Honorable Qasim have expected some special treatment or favors’ which they could have been receiving from other institutions during the long past. Our strict adherence to the constitution and law could have been a disappointment to some candidates and their supporters. I didn’t do any favor to any of the four candidates or to any party. I also didn’t do anything against any candidate or any party. I tried our best to hold a free and fair election against a very hostile atmosphere from the Police, Supreme Court and Attorney-General Azima Shakoor. I believe that the staff of the Elections Commission and the citizens of this country will tell whether I am a man of integrity or not.


Adam Mohamed: Under the Elections Commission Act (2008) the members are appointed to the commission by the President with approval by Parliament. The Elections Commission Act of Maldives says that the Commission must be an independent and impartial institution. While the commission is a publicly funded body accountable only to the Parliament, do you believe that the selection process of the members for the commission could enable proper functioning to carry out its mandate?

Mr. Fuwad Thowfeek: If the President and the majority of the parliament are from two different parties, the current system can work fine. The members nominated by the President and approved by the Parliament will be reasonably balanced. But, if the President has the majority in the parliament, only those in favor of that party will be selected to the Elections Commission. They could be dictated and controlled by the ruling party. I think it may be beneficial to consider a change to the Act. Elections Commission may be formed by members proposed by political parties with one candidate from each party subjected to consideration. Five persons who get the most votes from the parliament are approved. This is a method similar to the one we adopted for the Interim Elections Commission.


Adam Mohamed: In exercising regulatory and enforcement authority, how should the Elections Commission of Maldives respond to the possible election law violations?

Mr. Fuwad Thowfeek: We should see that the constitution and laws are fully enforced by the Elections Commission and it should be facilitated and assisted by the Maldives Police Services and the Prosecutor General’s Office. It is very sad and unfortunate that most of the people in the government, judiciary, parliament, independent institutions and police think that they can misuse their power and authority. They think they can charge accused on a selective basis like the Maldivian proverb, “The wood will be treated as the carpenter wishes”. This is very wrong and such people should not be given responsible positions of the State.

Adam Mohamed: In the USA, any unused funds that were not spent for campaign purposes by candidates must be returned to the US Treasury during the end of every presidential election according to Federal Elections Commission law. In your opinion, is the Elections Commission of Maldives monitoring the use of campaign funds by publicly funded candidates effectively?

Mr. Fuwad Thowfeek: It is something that has to be given more focus and attention. I understand that in the United States public funds are given to presidential candidates apart from funds from their parties, supporters, well-wishers and sponsors. In the Maldives, although there are no funds from the state budget given to presidential candidates, the candidates are required to submit clear records of the money received in cash or kind, and also the expenditure. In the Presidential Elections and Parliamentary Elections, candidates are required to make all transactions related to the election through bank accounts assigned for the election. Steps and measures need to be strengthened to monitor the funds and accounts more accurately.

Adam Mohamed: In your view, how could the Elections Commission of Maldives provide quality electoral services than now in order to promote and nurture a multi-party democracy in the nation?

Mr. Fuwad Thowfeek: The Commissioners and staff of the Election Commission should create and maintain an independent, free and fair atmosphere and their performances have to be transparent to all those who want to look at the Commission. The Elections Commission should have the courage to take its decision by itself based on the Constitution and Laws of the Maldives. The Elections Commission must function as an independent institution and not as a department under the Supreme Court or any other court.

Adam Mohamed: An electoral system consists of the set of rules which must be followed for a vote to be considered valid. Are there any major issues in our electoral system which has not been adequately addressed?

Mr. Fuwad Thowfeek: I believe the existing sets of rules are excellent and there are no major issues in our electoral system.

Adam Mohamed: The choice of electoral system is one of the most important institutional decisions for any democracy. Having confidence in our elections is central to our faith in our government, and all the decisions that we make collectively as a nation. Elections Commission of Maldives is set to introduce e-voting for the next local council elections despite opposition concerns. Is E-Voting important to Maldives & could it be implemented with the running Election laws?

Mr. Fuwad Thowfeek: I don’t think that electronic voting is important to Maldives at this stage. We have a very small voting population of less than 250,000 distributed to 500 polling stations with an average of 500 votes per station. No polling station will attend to over 1000 votes. It takes less than 4 hours to count and verify results of 1000 votes. We now see even larger countries that adopted different forms of electronic voting in the past have returned back to ballot paper - manual voting system. 

Our Constitution and laws also do not allow electronic voting to implement as it is clearly mentioned in the Constitution Article 171 (shaviyan) that votes should be counted in every polling station, in front of the candidates or their representatives and those who are permitted by law to observe the voting.

Adam Mohamed: In an interview given to local media earlier this year, you said that the Elections Commission of Maldives has to be trusted fully if E-voting is to be introduced to Maldives. Does that mean that the current Elections Commission is biased or politically motivated, what is your justification?

Mr. Fuwad Thowfeek: I tried my best to create awareness and build confidence among the public to the Elections Commission of the Maldives. But, some politicians, government institutions and judiciary worked to destroy the confidence people had on the Elections Commission. Therefore, it needs more time again to build confidence.  

I regret to say that the current Elections Commission is not working on building confidence but trying to please the government, ignore their duties as mentioned in the laws, create more suspicions and doubts about their sincerity and commitment. In this atmosphere, people will demand to see their votes counted in front of their eyes as we do now. They will doubt the results of electronic machines as the people know the machines can be programmed so that the results can be deceived and manipulated. 

Adam Mohamed: In different parts of the world, successful voter education programs are organized during elections to ensure that voters are ready and able to participate fully in the election process. Do we need voter education programs more vibrantly than now & what does a successful voter education program ensures the voters?

Mr. Fuwad Thowfeek: I agree that better voter education programs need to be implemented to broaden the public awareness on democracy, elections and value of the people’s votes. The goal of voter education is to make information available and accessible. Voter education campaigns should seek to achieve universal coverage of the electorate. Voter education should include publicity encouraging people to vote. Voter education should target all men and women, young and old, rich and poor, educated and uneducated. In the Maldives, some irresponsible discouraging phrases have been spread by anti-democratic elements. They say that it makes no difference that who comes to power. Some people try to convince people saying that it is same if Ali Rasgefaanu or Andhiri Rasgefaanu is there as our king. We know that it is not true even if we think about our short life. 

“Successful voter education ensures that voters are ready, willing, and able to participate fully in the election process. Voter education is essential to ensuring voters are well-informed and can effectively exercise their voting rights and express their political will on Election Day.”

Note: Mr. Fuwad Thowfeek was the Elections Commissioner of Maldives from September 2009 to March 2014, & a Member of the Elections Commission from September 2008 to September 2009. He was involved in decision making, planning and management of all national elections, by-elections and public referendums including the 2008 Presidential Elections, 2009 Parliamentary Elections, 2011 Local Council Elections, 2013 Presidential Election and 2014 Local Council Election and preparation of the 2014 Parliamentary Election in the Maldives. He holds a Diploma in Computer Data Systems from the International Statistical Programs Center of the Bureau of Census, Washington DC, U.S.A.