Voters’ list publicized; 1,859 additional voters compared to pres. election

The final list of eligible voters for the upcoming parliamentary election was publicized on Monday.

Elections Commission (EC) has publicized the voters’ list on their website and on the government gazette.

EC’s Secretary General Hassan Zakariyya told Sun that a total of 284,663 people are eligible to vote in the parliamentary election of which 139,361 are women and 145,302 are men.

The parliamentary elections was originally scheduled for March 17 – which fell within the first week of Ramadan. But in February, the main opposition MDP, which holds a majority in the Parliament – pushed through legislature banning national elections in Ramadan.

According to the legislature, if an election date falls within Ramadan, it must be held 10 days after Ramadan ends.

Following the passage of the bill, the EC decided the election would be held on April 21.

A total of 386 candidates are contesting for 93 constituencies in this year’s parliamentary election. The highest number of candidates are from the main opposition MDP – which are contesting 90 seats, followed by the main ruling PPM-PNC coalition, which is contesting 89 seats.

Voting will be held in three countries outside of Maldives; India’s Trivandrum, Sri Lanka’s Colombo and Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur. 

A total of 282,395 people were eligible to vote in the first round of the presidential elections held in September of last year. 79.85 percent of the eligible voters voted in the first round – amounting to 225.348 people.

Meanwhile, 284,804 people were eligible to vote in the runoff of which 246,915 people voted.