With only just half of the ballot boxes counted in the local council elections, opposition celebrations seemed premature as the main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) said the people have clearly spoken saying no to the government.
Speaking to reporters just past midnight on Saturday, MDP chairperson Hassan Latheef said over 65 percent of the seats have already been assured for the opposition.
Latheef noted the overwhelming majority MDP had acquired in the much coveted city councils where the ruling coalition had only managed one seat out of the 22 across three city councils.
He said the opposition had faced major challenges during and leading up to the elections, but the results clearly show the fading support for the government.
Preliminary results are still coming in, but MDP appears to have secured over half the total seats in the councils.
A total of 1,487 candidates had contested the elections for 664 seats including 563 councilors to 179 island councils, 67 councilors to 18 atoll councils and 23 councilors to three city councils.
Though 255,987 Maldivians were eligible to vote, voter turnout was reportedly much lower than expected despite the elections commission extending voting by two hours.
The elections has largely been incident free with the elections commission confirming that no major complaints have been received thus far.
The victory would be a major boost for the now united opposition which had continued to portray the arguably least popular elections in the archipelago as a referendum to showcase public support for the opposition.
Originally slated for January 14 the council elections had been delayed thrice, first ordered by the civil court over the rift in the ruling Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) and twice by the elections commission.
After rescheduling the polls for April 8 after the court ruling, the commission postponed the polls again to April 15, claiming that public schools were unavailable to accommodate polling stations at an earlier date before delaying it for the third time to May 6 after the swine flu outbreak.
Compared to the more illustrious parliamentary and presidential elections, the council elections in the past have been considered less significant to the political parties in the Maldives since the decentralized system was introduced in 2009.
However, the elections comes amid an intense showdown between the government and the now opposition parties as both sides urging the people to come out in numbers to declare their support through the vote.
