Elections Commission (EC) of Maldives has confirmed a total of 36 local resorts have agreed on facilitating ballot boxes for the upcoming presidential elections.
The Maldives electoral watchdog's president Ibrahim Shareef confirmed the news on Sunday.
The revelation comes shortly after Maldives opposition had expressed concern on EC's decision to place ballot boxes in only seven resort islands.
Explaining about its decision of allowing only seven resort islands, the commission's president on Sunday spoke to local media. According to Shareef, the commission had discussed placing ballot boxes in 130 resort outlets operating in Maldives with a local personnel count above 250.
Shareef detailed that from the 130 resorts the commission deliberated with, only 12 resorts had shown interest while 27 resorts said they were uninterested. The remaining 79 resorts did not respond accordingly as per EC president.
Furthermore Shareef noted that of the 12 resorts that had shown interest, the final seven resorts were selected through the commission's mandated prerequisites.
However, the commission had since moved to change its decision of including resorts with a local personnel count of 250 and above to 100 and above in order to provide voting option for more locals employed in resorts.
Following the decision a total of 36 resort outlets have since agreed to the commission's request.
In previous presidential poll ballot boxes were placed in resorts with a local employee count exceeding 100. Ballot boxes were placed in a total of 42 resort outlets in the last election.
