Parliamentary election: 608 ballots boxes in Maldives and six nations

Elections Commission (EC), on Thursday, announced their decision to place ballot boxes in six countries for the parliamentary election slated for March.

EC, on Thursday, announced the number of ballot boxes that will be used for the parliamentary election alongside the codes of the ballot boxes, their names, and the polling station alongside the islands or nations where they will be based.

Ballot boxes will be placed in six countries:

• Trivandrum, India
• Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
• Colombo, Sri Lanka
• Bangkok, Thailand
• London, United Kingdom
• Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

As per EC, only Maldivians residing in these nations, who have registered to vote in the election, can cast their votes at these boxes.

While a total of 608 ballot boxes will be placed for the election, the details of their placement are as follows;

• 240 ballot boxes in Male’ area: 181 in Male’ City, 50 in Hulhumale’ and 9 in Vilimale’
• 319 ballot boxes in atolls  
• 37 ballot boxes in resorts
• 1 ballot box in industrial areas

EC’s Vice Chairperson Ismail Habeeb has urged eligible voters to check the location and the ballot box where they are registered to cast their vote ahead of time.

The information can be clarified by calling EC’s hotline at 1414 or sending an SMS to 1414 in the following format: VR {SPACE) ID Card Number. 

EC has announced March 17^th as the date for the parliamentary election, which falls on Ramadan. However, the parliament is presently undertaking efforts to amend the law to ban holding elections during Ramadan. Therefore, there is a possibility of this being changed. 

A total of 287,327 people are eligible to vote in the election; 145,162 men and 139,165 women.

MPs will be elected for 90 constituencies for the 20^th parliament during this election.