Voting for this year’s presidential election, has commenced.

Polling began at 8am on Saturday at most of the stations.

Several individuals had begun queueing up outside polling stations from 7am onwards.

Ballot boxes will be open for voters to cast their ballots through 4pm Saturday.

Officials will begin counting votes at 4:30pm according to the Elections Commission of Maldives.

The commission revealed that a total of 282,395 individuals are eligible to vote in the presidential polls.

A total of 574 polling stations will be placed for the election, and vote boxes will be stationed across five countries abroad including Sri Lanka, Malaysia, India, the United Kingdom and Abu Dhabi.

Eight candidates are competing in the electoral race, including five from major political parties and three independent candidates. Running for presidency this year are the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP)’s candidate, President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih aspiring to be re-elected for a second term, candidate of the People’s National Congress (PNC) Dr. Mohamed Muizzu, Ilyas Labeeb from The Democrats, Jumhooree Party’s Gasim Ibrahim and Mohamed Nazim running through Maldives National Party (MNP).

The independent candidates vying for presidency are Ahmed Faris Maumoon, Umar Naseer and Hassan Zameel.

This is the greatest number of candidates running in a presidential race in the country’s history.