Elections Commission (EC) has inaugurated its new logo and color at a special ceremony on Monday evening.

At the event, EC chief Ahmed Shareef said that the lines of the logo represent all the atolls in Maldives and that the three lines one top represent the three powers of the state.

Shareef said that it also represents the three elections held by EC, which are the presidential election, the parliamentary election, and the local council elections.

He also said that people had criticized EC’s previous logo, which they said looked like a pair of hands hugging a ballot box while a vote is being cast.

EC’s new official color is purple. Shareef said that this particular color was chosen in order to distinguish it from the colors of political parties.