The High Court decided today not to accept the case filed by the MDP requesting an order to recount the votes for the Hulhumalé Central constituency seat in the Local Council Elections.

In the council elections held on the 4th of April, the PNC candidate, Ahmed Saneeh Haneef, won the Hulhumalé Central seat by a margin of 11 votes. He received 916 votes, while his closest rival, MDP candidate Safath Ahmed Zahir, received 905 votes. However, the number of void (invalid) votes exceeded 400.

The MDP filed an election-related complaint with the High Court, alleging that a void vote had been counted as a valid vote in one of the constituency's vote boxes. They argued that because the margin between the two candidates was so small, a recount could potentially change the final result.

The High Court Registrar decided today not to accept the case on the grounds that the MDP failed to demonstrate why the Elections Commission’s initial decision not to recount the ballots was incorrect.

In addition to this case, the MDP had also submitted requests to recount votes for several other island council elections. However, the court decided to reject all of those cases as well.

While the High Court rejected the case for the Hulhumalé Central constituency, this seat was one of only two seats won by the PNC for the Malé City Council in this election. The remaining 15 constituency seats were won by MDP candidates.