Maldives commences announcing of local elections’ temporary results

The Maldives electoral watchdog has commenced announcing the temporary results of the Local Council Elections 2017 which took place Saturday.

The Elections Commission on Tuesday released the temporary results of the three constituencies of Kunburudhoo island and Fenfushi island in Alif Dhaal atoll, and Fainu island of Raa atoll.

The EC’s Secretary General Ahmed Ali assured that the commission members are working round the clock to bring the elections results to the citizens. He announced that the temporary results of the second session will be publicised Tuesday afternoon.

SG Ali reiterated that the voting process had gone smoothly during the elections with the cooperation of state institutions and political parties.

The EC had originally scheduled to release the temporary results of the elections on Monday afternoon but had later postponed the announcement to Tuesday. However, the EC did not reveal the reason for the delay.

The commission is facing harsh criticism over the delay in announcing the temporary results of the Local Council Elections which were held Saturday. Opposition parties are accusing the government of forcing the EC to withhold the results in an attempt to tamper with the results.

The results that have been released so far show that main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) currently holds the majority of council seats. According to the statistics based on the results publicised by some media, observers and monitors, MDP has the super majority of the three main city councils with 12 out of 13 seats of Male City, two seats out of three from Fuvahmulah City and all the seats of Addu City. MDP has also won the majority of island council seats in islands with large populations.

However, ruling Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) also proclaimed that a great number of independent candidates are expected to join the ruling coalition soon and that they will ultimately win the majority of the council elections.

There were 255,987 eligible voters for this election out of which only a small percentage voted. Over 650 councillors and 1,497 candidates ran for the elections.