Voting at some polling stations in the internal elections of main ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) is to proceed until nightfall.

Voting began at 9am on Saturday, and was initially to conclude at 5pm, however, due to several issues, polling began after 12pm on Saturday in some regions. Ballot boxes in these stations are to remain open until 6pm, despite there being no queue. The stations will not close until everyone has cast their votes, if there is a queue.

Ballot boxes for the MDP internal congress elections were stationed across 15 schools in Malé City, Social Center, three islands where monitoring measures have not been enforced as well as the schools of all other islands.

A three-digit hotline has also been established for the purpose of complaint submissions.

733 candidates are contesting in the internal congress elections this year, with eligible voters’ count exceeding 93,000.

The election was previously slated for May this year, however, it was postponed due to the terrorist attack which had targeted party leader and former president Mohamed Nasheed on May 6.

MDP will be electing a total of 455 members into different positions at the party's congress.