Chief of Elections Commission (EC) Ahmed Shareef has revealed that only 36 resorts agreed to place ballot boxes for the upcoming presidential elections slated for September 23.
The electoral watchdog chief stated that whilst the Maldives boasts 130 resorts, out of which 77 resorts employ over 100 locals, only 36 resorts agreed to place ballot boxes for the upcoming elections.
EC had earlier announced that ballot boxes will only be placed in resorts with a minimum of 250 registered voters for the presidential polls. However, due to growing concerns among locals, the commission reversed it;s decision and dropped the baseline to 100 registered voters.
Shareef revealed that only 53 percent of resorts with over 100 local employees had agreed on placing ballot boxes at the resort-run islands. He further noted that only 12 resorts had agreed to place ballot boxes after the commission had initially reached out to the respective resorts.
As per the statistics from the commission's official website, in the 2013 presidential elections, 42 ballot boxes were allocated for resorts.
There were 263,000 eligible voters in the voters registry publicised by EC for the upcoming election slated for September 23. A total of 483 ballot boxes will be placed across the island nation and in countries abroad for the presidential elections.
Ballot boxes outside of Maldives will be placed at New Delhi and Trivandrum in India, two boxes at Colombo in Sri Lanka, Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, Singapore, and London in the United Kingdom.
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