Elections Commission (EC) has announced that re-elections will be held on Saturday for Madifushi Island in Thaa Atoll and Komandoo island in Shaviyani Atoll.

Speaking to Raajje.mv, EC Member Ahmed Akram said that all candidates had tied in the initial count. Three candidates had contested on opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) ticket. Two of these candidates had tied in the first round. Both Ahmed Rif’ath and Mohamed Arif Ahmed had won 518 votes each.

Out of the six candidates who had contested the Council seats, Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM) candidate Mohamed Shujuan won 568 votes, coming in first. Mohamed Mufeed from MDP won 556 votes.

Based on the interim results, Mohamed Shujuan and Mohamed Mufeed have claimed their positions on the Council. The third Councilor will be determined following the run off held between the two candidates from MDP.

EC had nullified the results of Madifushi Council vote, stating that an individual who had not been authorized to vote in the area had cast his ballot.

When questioned about the decision to hold re-elections, Akram said the decision to do so was based on the Supreme Court ruling on the Council Elections of 2014 and after reviewing cases submitted to the Complaints Bureau of EC.

Akram added that four candidates will contest in the re-election, as there was the possibility that the final results would change, since three candidates need to be elected.

Seven candidates contested the seats of the Council. Progressive Party of the Maldives’ (PPM) Abbas Ahmed and Ali Hassan are tied with 389 votes each. Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) Hassan Abdullah had won 388 votes, while PPM’s Ismail Hilmy won 387 votes.