MDP wins back Veyvah seat from PNC as Supreme Court overturns High Court ruling

The main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) won back a seat in the M. Veyvah Council on Thursday, after the Supreme Court overturned a contentious ruling by the High Court that awarded the seat to the ruling People’s National Congress (PNC).

MDP’s Ahsan Naeem had won a seat in the Veyvah Council after beating PNC’s Mohamed Nazeeh by a margin of just two votes in the local council elections on April 4.

Ahsan received 121 votes, while Nazeeh won 119.

Nazeeh contested the results with the High Court, which, on May 13, annulled three disputed ballot papers which had black spots on it, which were all votes cast for Ahsan.

With the decision, Nazeeh was declared the winner with 119 votes, while Nazeeh had his votes cut down to 118.

The High Court had made the decision by a majority consensus of two out of three judges on the bench. Judges Mohamed Shaneez Abdulla and Abdul Rauf Ibrahim, the latter of whom had run unsuccessfully on behalf of the PNC in the 2024 parliamentary elections, had decided in favor of invalidating the ballots, while Ibrahim Mahir decided there were no grounds to change the election results.

The EC had conducted a recount before Nazeeh had contested the results with the High Court. While both candidates each lost one vote, the recount did not change the victor.

Ahsan has filed an appeal with the Supreme Court, contesting the ruling.

A three-member bench composed of judges Abdulla Hameed, Hussain Shaheed and Mohamed Saleem issued its ruling in the case on Thursday afternoon.

During the hearing, presiding judge Hameed decided in favor of overturning the High Court ruling. He said that the evidence presented in the case showed it likely that the ink spots in questions were made during printing, and weren’t marks made by voters. He also decided that there was no room to order Nazeeh to compensate Ahsan for MVR 300,000 in legal fees, as he failed to provide any details regarding the expenses.

The decision was seconded by Shaheed and Saleem, and the Supreme Court overturned the High Court ruling by unanimous consensus.

With the decision, the MDP has won back the seat it lost to PNC.