Voting has officially commenced in the second round of the Maldives' presidential election.
Queues started forming outside polling stations as early as 7.15 am today, with voting beginning at 8:00 am as scheduled. Voting will conclude at 5:00 pm, and counting will commence approximately 30 minutes after the polls close.
A total of 574 vote boxes were placed in the initial round of the election. However, 12 additional boxes have been placed for the second round, increasing the total to 586. This includes 187 boxes in Male' area, 319 boxes in the atolls, 65 in resorts, nine boxes abroad, five boxes in jails, and one box in an industrial area. A total of 282,804 individuals, comprising 144,410 males and 138,394 females, are eligible to vote in this round, including 408 new voters.
While eight contestants contested the first round, the PPM-PNC presidential candidate, Dr. Mohamed Muizzu advanced to the second round as the leading contender with 101,635 votes (46 percent). He is facing President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, who came second with 86,161 votes (39 percent).
