The number of registrants living abroad for the presidential election's runoff polls has doubled compared to previous elections, according to the Elections Commission (EC).
EC deputy chief Ismail Habeeb said that a total of 6,223 voters residing abroad have registered for the second round of the presidential elections, which is double the number of registrants for the first round, which stood at 3,327 voters.
Ballot boxes for Maldivian communities living abroad will be set up in India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, the United Kingdom, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In total, there will be 14 ballot boxes stationed in these locations to facilitate voting for the presidential election's runoff polls.
In the first round of the presidential election, there were a total of 282,395 eligible voters. For the runoff polls, the number of eligible voters has increased to 282,803, with 408 new voters.
Due to the increase in re-registered voters, EC earlier announced the decision to install 12 additional ballot boxes.
Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) and People's National Congress (PNC) coalition candidate Dr. Mohamed Muizzu took the lead in the first round with 101,635 votes while Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) candidate Ibrahim Mohamed Solih came in second with 86,161 votes.
The two candidates will compete in the runoff polls as neither of them secured 50 percent of the votes in the initial round.
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