The Elections Commission on Tuesday announced that the by-election for the constituencies of Thaa atoll Madifushi island and Shaviyani atoll Komandoo island will be held coming Saturday.
EC member Ahmed Akram stated that Komandoo constituency is going for a by-election as two candidates were tied with equal votes for the third seat on the island council during the Local Council Election.
Member of ruling Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) Mohamed Shujuan and member of main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) Mohamed Mufeed won two of Komandoo Island Council’s three seats with 568 and 556 votes respectively. The highest vote count for the third seat was won by two MDP candidates with 518 votes each.
Hence, the by-election will be held between the two tied candidates for the remaining council seat.
Meanwhile, the by-election will be held among the top four candidates for the Madifushi Island Council. According to the EC, a complaint had been filed at the Compliance Bureau over an error in the ballot cast by one voter in Madifushi. As the top four candidates had received nearly an equal amount of votes each, the EC concluded that the ballot with the error could have affected the final results and thus decided on a by-election among the top four candidates.
The EC has not announced a by-election for any other constituencies.