EC determines number of ballot boxes for presidential election

The Elections Commission has determined the number of ballot boxes to be placed for the upcoming presidential election.

President of Elections Commission Fuad Thaufeeg told Sun Online that the checking of re-registration forms was completed yesterday evening, and that a total of 464 ballot boxes will be placed for the presidential election scheduled for 7 September 2013.

“By the time we finished checking the re-registration forms this evening, the number of ballot boxes had changed. Earlier we had decided to place 481 ballot boxes. But now, a total of 464 ballot boxes will be placed in Maldives and abroad for this presidential election. It’s not likely that this number changes,” he said yesterday.

He said that the ballot box quantity changed because some islands which have less than 50 people were not registered earlier, including resorts and industrial islands.

Fuad said that 48 boxes will be placed in Male’ for residents of Male’, 55 boxes will be placed in Male’ for people of other islands living in Male’, and 304 boxes will be placed in other inhabited islands.

He said that it had previously been decided to place 58 ballot boxes in resorts, but this number had now come down to 42.

The number of ballot boxes in industrial islands has also come down from 5 to 4, and 4 ballot boxes will be placed in prisons, said Fuad.

Six ballot boxes will be placed abroad, that is in Colombo, Sri Lanka; New Delhi, India; Trivandrum, India; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; London, UK; and Singapore.