Three arrested in election-related incidents

The police made three arrests in connection to incidents related to the ongoing parliamentary elections on Sunday, including two arrests from GDh. Fiyoaree.

In a statement on X on Sunday afternoon, the police said they have made three arrests in the Operation Blue Tide, the special police operation launched for the elections.

According to the police, one of the individuals was arrested from Male’ for showing their ballot paper.

Meanwhile, the other two individuals were arrested from Fiyoaree for creating a disturbance and disrupting voting at a polling station in the island.

No other disturbances have been reported from anywhere else.

Polls opened at 08:00 am and are set to close at 05:30 pm. Elections Commission (EC) has said that polling time will not be extended.

Total 368 candidates are contesting in the elections for 93 seats in the Parliament, including six new seats. This includes: 90 candidates from the main ruling People’s National Congress (PNC); 89 candidates from Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP); 39 candidates from the Democrats; 10 candidates from Jumhoory Party (JP); four candidates from Maldives Development Alliance (MDA); four from Adhaalath Party (AP); two from Maldives National Party (MNP); and 130 independent candidates.

Total 284,663 people are eligible to vote in this year’s elections.