Some 46 percent of eligible voters have cast their ballots so far in Saturday's presidential election, according to the Elections Commission (EC) figures.
According to figures,129,975 people have voted which is 46.03 percent of the eligible voters. Of these, 23.63 percent were men and 22.41 percent were women.
"We visited some polling centers in Male' and saw that all the polling centers were packed with people. A lot of people had queued very early in the morning," said EC Vice President Ismail Habeeb.
He told reporters that more officials have been sent to the polling centers after complaints were received about the long queues. He assured that the voting process will be fast-tracked in the afternoon.
The EC has reduced the number of voters for each ballot box to speed up the voting process.
In previous elections, 1,200 people voted per box, but this time the maximum number of voters per box will be 750, Habeeb said.
