Voting for another round of the Local Council Elections have commenced Komandhoo of Shaviyani atoll and Madifushi of Thaa atoll on Saturday. 

The Elections Commission decided to hold a run off round for the elections in Komandhoo because two candidates had received the same number of votes. 

The candidates who have guaranteed seats for the Komandhoo council are the ruling party’s Mohamed Shujuan, with 568 votes, and opposition candidate Mohamed Mufeed, with 566 votes. The third council member for the six-member council will be decided after Saturday’s vote, where two candidates from the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) are competing. 

A reelection is being held in Madifushi due to a discrepancy in the initial ballots, where a voter not listed for the constituency had cast his ballot at the box. 

Candidates contesting for Madifushi are MDP’s Hassan Abdulla and the ruling party’s Ismail Hilmee, Abbas Ahmed, and Ali Haseen. 

The commission has said that voting commenced at 8:00 am and will continue until 4:00 pm. 

There had reportedly been 116 complaints filed to the commission over the voting process on the 6th May. Ahmed Akram, a member of the commission, said that all the complaints have now been addressed.