The Election Commission of Maldives was established on August 8, 2008 as an independent and impartial institution to conduct and supervise all state election and public referendums. Additionally, the Commission is to monitor the regulatory framework pertaining to the functioning of political parties.

Development of a Civic Education Program:
In collaboration with UNDP, the Election Commission of Maldives began work on developing a curriculum for civic education in 2015. The project was completed with the accomplishment of four different modules with its content. These modules were designed in such a way that the participants learn through the activities which they actively participate in. The UNDP carried out the teaching of trainers who could deliver the four modules to the public. Future enhancements for the current civic education program include:
• Youth participation which will affect the number of new voter turnout. • Women empowerment, not only as voters but as candidates and as political appointees. • Disability mechanisms of delivering the messages to the disabled people in the most efficient manner.

Development of Voter Education Strategy:
In collaboration with UNDP, the Voter Education Strategy from 2017-2019 was developed to come up with efficient and effective strategies to focus on: • Development of a mobile application with voter education and awareness content. • Carrying out social media campaigns in a wide range. • Provide a better platform for young people to express their concerns and come up with innovative solutions to address these issues. • Various forms of educational messages and methods must be employed to break gender stereotypes. • Disabled community members could be used in developing and delivering many of the related contents. • Engaging constructively with the public on key issues of concern and developing consistent campaigns of education could potentially change the negative perceptions.

One of the implementing strategies is to communicate the civic modules to emerging voters via school curriculum in the first quarter of 2016.

H.E. Mr. Ahmed Sulaiman,
Chairman, Election Commission of Maldives