High Court has ruled that several vote papers used in the recent Local Council Election are invalid due to the presence of spots on them, following a case submitted to the court seeking their annulment.

The issue was brought forward by Mohamed Nazeeh, who contested for the Veyvah Council on a PNC ticket, in a case filed against the Elections Commission. He submitted the case to the High Court after three vote papers, which were considered invalid, were later determined to be valid. That determination had been made after the vote box was reopened and re-examined.

In the election, an MDP candidate had secured victory over Nazeeh by a margin of two votes. Nazeeh had requested the court to annul the Veyvah Council election results and order the Elections Commission to conduct a fresh election.

In the judgment delivered by the High Court today, it stated that the marks on the three vote papers involved in the case were marks that made the papers identifiable even upon a superficial inspection.

Therefore, the court ruled that these were not votes where the secrecy of the vote could be guaranteed.

"If there is an opportunity to specify that a particular mark will be on a vote paper, and if that mark is such that it is identifiable to those observing from a distance even upon a superficial glance, then that vote paper is one that contains an identifiable mark and is a vote paper where secrecy is not guaranteed," the judgment stated.

Consequently, the judgment declared those three vote papers invalid. It also ordered the Elections Commission to announce the election results again after deducting those three votes.

By following this order, the election victory will shift to Nazeeh instead of the MDP candidate.

High Court delivered this judgment with a majority of two judges. Judge Ibrahim Mahir, who was on the bench, held a dissenting opinion. In his opinion, he stated that it is not believed that the ink spots on the vote papers would lead to the loss of the secrecy of the vote.