Voting is underway across the country to elect a President for the next five years.
A total of 574 polling stations have been set up with 176 in Male' region, 319 in the atolls, 65 in resorts, eight in different countries, five in prisons and one in industrial islands.
Voting hours are from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm. If there is no one in the queue, the polling stations will close at 4:00 pm and vote counting will begin 30 minutes later.
Voting start time in other countries (local time)
- Trivandrum, India - 8:30 am
- Colombo, Sri Lanka - 8:30 am
- Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - 11:00 am
- London, England - 12:00 pm
- Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates - 7:00 am
Some 282,395 people are eligible to vote in the presidential election, including 27,006 first time voters, according to the Elections Commission (EC) and a total of 285,219 ballot papers have been printed.
The winning candidate must secure above 50 percent of the vote. If no candidate wins a majority in the first round, a run-off will be held between the first- and second-placed candidates.
The second round if required will take place on September 30.
The candidates
- Umar Naseer (independent)
- Hassan Zameel (independent)
- Ibrahim Mohamed Solih (Maldivian Democratic Party)
- Dr. Mohamed Muizzu (People's National Congress)
- Qasim Ibrahim (Jumhooree Party)
- Ahmed Faris Maumoon (independent)
- Ilyas Labeeb (The Democrats)
- Mohamed Nazim (Maldives National Party)
This year's election sees the highest number of candidates since the adoption of the new constitution in 2008. There were six candidates in 2008, four candidates in 2013 and two candidates in 2018.
Some 143 international observers and 22 monitors will be working across the country for the election.
This is the largest number of international monitors and observers registered for an election in the Maldives.
