Maldives' electoral watchdog on Saturday admitted that many repeat and forged forms was likely among the 86,000 people who have sought re-registration to vote in the upcoming presidential elections.
Voters would need to re-register if they wish to cast their ballots outside their native constituency.
Elections Commission (EC) member Ahmed Akram told reporters on Saturday said that between 60,000 to 70,000 people had re-registered to vote in the last presidential elections but the commission had officially re-registered around 58,000 after verification.
Similar to 2013, Akram said many repeat and forged forms could be among the 86,000 forms the commission has received thus far.
"We always take everything related to the elections in a positive manner. So since the last elections there has been a significant increase in population coupled with the huge internal migration would explain the hike in re-registration requests," Akram explained.
As the deadline ends on Saturday, Akram said a lot more people are still queued up to re-register and added that the commission expects around 95,000 people to re-register to vote in the September elections.
The opposition alliance meanwhile has expressed grave concern over what it said was unrealistic amount of people seeking to re-register.
