Maldivians begin voting in the 2019 parliamentary elections.

Voting began at 8am in most parts of the country, while there is a delay in some areas.

While voters began queueing up as early as 6am on Saturday, Elections Commission of the Maldives had finished transferring ballot boxes to polling stations across capital city Malé at around 7am.

Voting will be held in neighboring India and Sri Lanka from 8:30am to 4:30pm, in Malaysia from 11am to 7pm and in United Kingdom from 9:30am to 5:30pm during their local times.

A total of 144 ballot boxes will be stationed across Malé while the total ballot box count for Saturday’s polls is 501.

A total of 1,663 monitors and 3,624 observers- including 31 international observers- will be active throughout the elections. 2,220 monitors will be active from media and over 4,000 officials from the EC will be actively involved as well.

264,589 individuals are registered to vote, while 386 candidates are contesting for 87 seats.