Prominent Lawyer Maumoon Hameed and former Attorney General Abdulla Muiz have won the Bar Council elections, held on Saturday.

While Hameed won the seat of President of the council, he beat prominent lawyers Husnu Suood who also ran for the seat.

Hameed garnered 543 votes while Suood fell behind with 401.

Muiz, who contested for the post of Vice President, won with 792 votes and his opponent, Mohamed Haleem fell behind with just 139 votes.

Those who won seats at the Executive Committee of the council include Mohamed Faisal, Ahmed Muizzu, Shujun Mohamed, Anas Abdul Sattar, Anara Naeem and Mohamed Aseel Hassan.

While the Elections Commission initially received 23 applications to contest for the Bar Council election, the commission disqualified one candidate, Ali Naseer, for not having the required experience. Following this, only 22 candidates contested in the election which proceeded from 9am to 5pm on Saturday.

Recently ratified Legal Profession Act states that the Executive Committee of the Bar Council shall consist of the President, Vice President, and six members.

Article 11(b) of the Act states that the President, Vice President, and attorneys of the Bar Council’s Executive Committee should be chosen through an election organized by the Elections Commission of the Maldives. It also states that the election should be held within 21 days of ratification.

Further, those running for the position of President or Vice President need to have 10 years of experience as a lawyer and those running for a member seat need five years of experience.