Presidential Election in Maldives heads to second round as Muizzu leads but falls short of majority

Dr. Mohamed Muizzu, the PPM-PNC presidential candidate, has emerged as the frontrunner in today's presidential election, garnering the highest number of votes thus far.

Despite his strong showing, it has been confirmed that a second round of voting will be necessary, as he falls short of the 50 percent majority required for a single-round victory.

As it stands, Muizzu leads the polls with an impressive 71,512 votes, obtained from 428 out of 574 counted ballot boxes, which translates to 45.44 percent of the total votes. Following closely behind is the incumbent President and MDP presidential candidate, Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, with 63,161 votes, accounting for 40.13 percent of the vote share.

The other candidates' standings are as follows:

- Ilyas Labeeb, the Democrats' presidential candidate: 10,642 votes, equivalent to 6.76 percent
- Independent candidate Umar Naseer: 4,376 votes, equivalent to 2.78 percent
- Qasim Ibrahim, the JP presidential candidate: 4,167 votes, equivalent to 2.65 percent.
- Independent candidate Ahmed Faris Maumoon: 1,936 votes, equivalent to 1.28 percent.
- Mohamed Nazim, the Maldives National Party (MNP)'s candidate: 1,352 votes, equivalent to 0.88 percent.
- Independent candidate Hassan Zameel: 240 votes, equivalent to 0.15 percent

A total of 282,395 voters are eligible for this round, with 160,853 votes counted thus far.

The second round of the presidential election is scheduled for September 30.