Police overseeing security while vote counting proceeds at a polling station of the Local Council Elections 2017. PHOTO: NISHAN ALI/MIHAARU
The Maldives electoral watchdog postponed announcing the temporary results of the Local Council Elections 2017 from Monday to early Tuesday.
The Elections Commission (EC) had originally stated that it will announce the temporary total results of each constituency or council at the elections main centre in capital Male on Monday afternoon. However, the commission announced late Monday that the results will be revealed early Tuesday instead.
The reason for the postponement remains unclear.
The commission is facing harsh criticism over the delay in announcing the temporary results of the Local Council Elections which were held Saturday. Opposition parties are accusing the government of forcing the EC to withhold the results in an attempt to tamper with the results.
The results that have been released so far show that main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) currently holds the majority of council seats. According to the statistics based on the results publicised by some media, observers and monitors, MDP has the super majority of the three main city councils with 12 out of 13 seats of Male City, two seats out of three from Fuvahmulah City and all the seats of Addu City. MDP has also won the majority of island council seats in islands with large populations.
MDP has declared that, thus, the joint opposition has achieved victory in the Local Council Elections despite numerous obstructions and pressure from the government. However, ruling Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) also proclaimed that a great number of independent candidates are expected to join the ruling coalition soon and that they will ultimately win the majority of the council elections.