President of Elections Commission (EC) Ahmed Shareef, on late Tuesday, said that they would investigate and take measures against election officials that had nullified several valid votes cast in Maamigili constituency in the parliamentary elections.
In the elections held on April 6, Jumhooree Party (JP) leader Qasim Ibrahim won his third tenure in the parliament as Maamigili constituency representative, defeating Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP)'s candidate Ali Ameez by a close margin.
There were 190 votes counted as invalid in the constituency comprising of Maamigili and Fenfushi.
After allegations arose that many valid votes were nullified in the tally, EC recounted the three ballot boxes in the Maamigili constituency on Tuesday evening.
The electoral watchdog said that it made the decision to recount the three ballot boxes as the results may be susceptible to change, since there was only a margin of 80 votes between Qasim and Ameez.
After the recount, Qasim received 64 additional votes and close second Ameez attained 45 extra votes. Qasim’s total vote tally amounted to 1,145, whereas Ameez received a total of 1,046, thereby resulting in the JP leader leading in the votes with a difference of 99 votes.
According to EC President Shareef, 143 votes were designated as invalid in counting the three ballot boxes in Maamigili. He revealed that with the recount, only 36 was found to be illegitimate.
“Accordingly, more than 100 votes were proven to be valid”, said Shareef.
“Elections officials counting legitimate votes as invalid is a violation of the law. And vote-counting officials who signed off on valid votes and null votes”.
According to the Elections General Act, the responsibility of determining a vote as invalid is a power vested to the official in charge of the voting centre, appointed by the Elections Commission.
Sign In