Preliminary result announced

The preliminary result of yesterday’s presidential election has been announced by the Elections Commission.

The result, announced early morning in Dharubaaruge by the commission, shows that presidential candidate of Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) Mohamed Nasheed received the most votes, with 95,224 votes (45.45 percent).

The second most votes went to presidential candidate of Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) Abdullah Yameen. He received 53,099 votes (25.35 percent).

The third most votes went to presidential candidate of Jumhooree Party (JP) Gasim Ibrahim. He received 50,422 votes (24.07 percent).

Independent presidential candidate, incumbent President Dr Mohamed Waheed received 10,750 votes (5.13 percent).

There were 2,395 invalid votes.

The turnout was 211,890, which is 88.44 percent of the voting population.

Elections Commission first said that the preliminary result will be announced at 11:00 pm, but later delayed it to 1:30 am. The result was finally announced at 4:30 am.

The commission said that the delay was caused by problems in counting the votes in boxes located in Majeediyya School, Hithadhoo in Addu City and Galolhu Madharusa.

The preliminary result of Saturday’s presidential election shows that a run-off must be held to elect a president for the next term, since no candidate received a majority of 50 percent or more as stated in the Elections Commission Regulation.

The candidates who will contest in the second round are MDP’s Mohamed Nasheed and PPM’s Abdullah Yameen.