Both candidates who contested for the presidency of The Democrats have declared victory with the results of the party's first internal election on Saturday yet to be announced.
The contenders for Democrats President were Henveiru Hulhangu MP Hassan Latheef, the party's interim chairman, and Hussain Amr, former managing director of the State Trading Organization (STO) during the previous government.
Voting took place from 10 am to 4 pm yesterday and tallies of result sheets were sent to the party's office after polls closed. But the party has not made any official announcement about the election, drawing criticism from party members over the delay in announcing preliminary results.
Despite the lack of results, both Amr and Hassan Latheef have declared victory.
"Result sheets from ballot boxes show that I have won this election by a large margin. What took place in the whole country today was an important political activity. What's next is starting the real work. Congratulation and thanks to all members," Hassan wrote in a post on X.
But some newspapers have reported Amr as saying that he has won the seat. But the election was not conducted fairly and the opponent misused the party's office and meeting hall for his campaign and engaged in negative campaigning, Amr said.
Some 5,835 members were eligible to vote in the internal election of The Democrats. The results of an election with that number of voters should have been announced by now, some Democrats have said.
