Parliament Speaker Mohamed Nasheed has called for action to be taken against people attempting to disrupt the Maldives Democratic Party (MDP) primary elections.
Nasheed and President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih contested in MDP's primary election held on Saturday. Over 57,000 MDP members had the right to select their presidential candidate in this election.
In a Tweet, Nasheed said police had arrested some of his supporters and observers at some of the polling stations. He called for their immediate release.
While Nasheed said this, four people have been accused of breaking the ballot box at Gaafu Dhaalu atoll Rathafandhoo, and arrested. Three of them are from Rathafandhoo while the other person is from Thinadhoo, of the same atoll.
While the election was going on, some polling stations had to be temporarily closed during the afternoon in Malé and on some of the islands due to disruptions.
Major disruptions included people not registered or qualified to cast their votes in this election attempting to vote.
So far, over half the vote boxes have been counted. Nearly 19,800 votes have been counted, which show that President Solih is leading the election, with a total of over 12,000 votes.