MDP’s Election Committee: Most successful election so far

The chair of Maldivian Democratic Party’s (MDP) election committee and deputy chairperson of the party Ibrahim Waheed (Iburey) said that the primary held on Saturday was the most successful election so far. 

Speaking at a press conference held on Sunday regarding the election, Iburey said that there was multiple reasons why the election was so complete.

He noted that having kept ballot boxes in all islands and the votes being counted and announced in the same day was a first in itself. He also added that they have not received too serious of a complaint regarding the proceedings. 

“The other reason why we are saying it was successful is based on the complaints we received to both our hotline and online, after such a massive election. So far we received 50 complaints to our official portal and 10 to the phone.”

Iburey went on to said that despite this, there were some issues noted as well.

Among this were an instance where there were delays in starting off voting in Sh. Feevah, after two members from opposition Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) enter the voting center claiming to be observers from a candidate, and said would not let voting take place. 

He stated that the complaints will be forwarded to the disciplinary committee for action to be taken. 

He also spoke about the lack of re-re-registration in the party, and how it was the cause of more people voting for a specific box, than stated in the lists.

“There is no re-registration policy for voters in the party.”

“Of the 57,255 members, about 7,000 are living in Male’ and the remaining are people in other islands. So they have the opportunity to vote in their island as well as in Male’,” he explained. 

Iburey said that this may cause more people to vote than in the lists, but so far no issue of double voting have been identified. 

Additionally, he said that arrangements for re-registration will be made for the next election.