Voter turnouts for the Maldivian Democratic Party’s (MDP) chairperson elections are indicative of how the party is the single largest political entity working for peaceful reforms, the party said.

In a press released on Sunday night, the MDP expressed contentment that turnouts were numerous, despite no members being ‘pressured or compelled to participate’ in anyway.

Former Youth and Sports Minister, Hassan Latheef, won the single-candidate elections with 25, 545 votes, while he would have needed only 5,000. The elections had a voter turnout of 25,801 members – with 167 votes against and 89 null votes.

Latheef had pledged to bring extensive reforms to MDP’s administration.

Ballot boxes for Friday’s vote were placed in seven locations throughout the capital, every inhabited island in the nation, and even former President Mohamed Nasheed had cast his vote from Colombo, Sri Lanka.