The opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) took the lead in the local council elections this morning, as ballot boxes across the islands were tallied overnight. However the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) appear to have decisively won both Male’ and Addu City Councils, taking all but two seats in the former and every seat in Addu.
Police reported that incidents were generally minor and restricted to isolated outbursts on several islands due to the prevalence of ‘assisted’ voting for the elderly and blind. An exception was on Kela in Haa Alif Atoll, where police had to last night evacuate election officials and the ballot box to Hanimaadhoo before controlling a irate crowd.
“There was a misunderstanding between the Elections Commission and the people voting,” said Sub-Inspector Ahmed Shiyam. “Some people may have gone there after the 4pm deadline and found they were unable to vote.”
Both major parties have expressed concern with the low voter turnout, while the DRP yesterday expressed particular frustration with the Elections Commission’s last minute decision to reallow an election for Addu City Council, following Supreme Court permission. Leader Ahmed Thasmeen Ali told Minivan News that the party has dissassembled its campaign team in Addu after the EC cancelled the election.
10:50 – Two-thirds of the ballot boxes (276) have been counted so far, with 141 remaining to be counted. Current tally:
DRP 375
MDP 343
Independent 132
JP 9
DQP 2
AP 10
GIP 1
12:50 – Haveeru reports issues with the ballot box on Baarah in Haa Alif Atoll, delaying preliminary results for the island.
Elections Commission Deputy President Ahmed Fayaz told Minivan News that many such issues had been reported to the Commission.
”The commission’s officials have been working since dawn yesterday, and it is possible for them to make mistakes,” he said. ”We have now sent a team to the island to resolve the issue.”
13:19 – DRP pulls further ahead as island votes come in, although vote % won’t be available until later in the day.
Of 288 boxes counted, 129 to go:
DRP 402
MDP 359
Independent 140
AP 10
JP 9
DQP 9
PA 2
GIP 1
2:15pm – Votes for Baarah are being recounted due to a mismatch between the number of ballots and votes cast, reports Haveeru. The Kela ballot box is currently being recounted, amid reports that over 600 people on the island may have been unable to vote due to deadline policies.
16:35 – Both major parties seem to have declared victory. Former DRP Deputy Leader Umar Naseer has passed around an SMS invitation declaring that a “Welcome to Blue Maldives” victory function, organised by former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, will be held at the Artificial Beach in Male’ at 8:45pm this evening.
Meanwhile, jubilant MDP supporters have crowded into pickup trucks and are parading the city hooting and cheering.
17:15 – Preliminary results of 307 boxes counted:
DRP 440
MDP 369
Independent 153
AP 13
JP 9
DQP 3
PA 2
GIP 1
17:17 – The Elections Commission has said it may call a re-election in Kela after violence erupted last night when voting was closed. Haveeru reports that over 600 people were unable to vote by the deadline.
18:12 – Elections Commission confirms that temporary counts for almost all boxes have been completed across 188 islands and 400 polling stations, and are currently being faxed and emailed through to the EC to be tabulated.
Deputy Commissioner Ahmed Hassan Fayaz told Minivan News that the final results should be received around 11pm this evening, “although changes to the temporary results should be minor.”
“The temporary results suggest that MDP has won more seats in the city councils, while DRP has a clear majority in the island and atoll councils,” Fayaz said.
The percentage vote tally, rather than seat count, should be available later this evening or early tomorrow morning once tabulation is complete, which will give some insight into support for the major parties.
18:34 – Latest count:
DRP 449
MDP 381
Independent 164
AP 13
JP 8
DQP 4
PA 2
GIP 1
Rolling coverage will continue today until votes have been counted. Refresh the page for updates.
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I don't want to say "I told you so".
But looking at the results so far, we are in for circus big time.
Before, it was only the Majlis trying to block every development initiative of the government. This time, just guess what sort of "jessun" the Government is going to face from Local Councils that will be controlled by DRP.
Local Councils will have to learn to work with the Government to be effective. Sadly in a country like ours, where most people have no clue of how democracy works and an opposition hell bent on making it impossible for the Government to function, I really wonder how some of these Councils are going to work with the Government.
Thank God, at least major urban centers will have functioning Councils since there will be no friction between Government Policy and Local Councils in Male, Addu and Kulhudhuffushi where MDP will dominate.
Dont worry bro, work with the people who support government policies
folks - dont panic to voters decission. they have a right to do so and they expects others to accept the same. With all the back biting and hardwork from the two colours (YELLOW/BLUE/OTHER COLOURS) looks like yet again Maldivians gave their message. GET THE JOB DONE and give importance to RED, GREEN & WHITE,the national colours.
Message to MDP: Stop and think what this means...use this opportunity in a positive manner, to acknowledge that there is something very wrong here given the DRP majority gained, and the significant percentage of people who did not bother to go and vote! Don't let this Country go back to the greedy hands of the previous regime or let it be destroyed by the greed of some people with newly gained power and wealth! We elected MDP to run this country with a lot of trust and faith in the Party and its leaders but sadly, most of the leaders are too arrogant now to recognize and admit that they have failed in a major way! Learn to admit your mistakes and move on, there is still time, (very little, but enough) to make the difference that we voted you in to make! Prove us right in trusting you MDP!
2009 - Blame the Civil Service
2010 - Blame the Majlis
2011 - Blame the island and atoll councils
How easy to rule when you have someone to blame for your failures every year. 🙂
@Ahmed
Very well said. I am no supporter of DRP and Gayoom. But this is exactly what is going to happen now. Blame everything on the Atoll and Island council.
I honestly dont know why Anni has appointed lunatics like dhonbileh to key party positions. This idiot dhonbileh said today that MDP has won the 2013 presidentila elections. so their mandate will now end in Nov 2018. I was trying so hard not to laugh. And come to think of it. The so called most educated man dr. janaazaa was sitting next to this grade 3 drop out at the press conference. ha ha. this country is in a big mess. While MDP is full of these idiots and cheap opportunits like dr.janaazaa and DRP is also completely hopeless. sad sitution.
@Failures? What failures?
IMO. The current results are very fortuitous for MDP. Winning the Male' and Addu City Councils as well as the Island Councils of major islands like G Dh. Thinadhoo and Kulhudhuffushi was just what we needed. There are couple of scenarios that may play out.
1. The islands that have opposition backed councils block government attempts at development. In this case the islanders themselves will know whats going on then. Also, having major islands, the government can focus on the 'effas kurumuge' programs that would enable it to create regional population centres and future 'cities'.
2. The opposition backed councils support government attempts at development, which will in this case, develop the islands making the residents happy....ho hum.
In any case, it would have been best if the island council had mdp majority but at the same time have one or two opposition members so that it doesnt give way to corruption.
@ragib
MDP won the major urban areas. So imagine how many votes anni will get in the 2013 election. addu, thinadhoo, dhiddhoo, kulhudhuffushi,male these are the main areas. so many people are voting from these islands.
i'm no supporter of any party but i have to say this 'anni varah boabodu'. now he will definitely develop these places so that he will be elected on next election.
so therefore i disagree with u.
yes, sure DRP won more seats but from small islands where there's not much of a population.
Its very clear from the poll that MDP won most populated atolls in Maldives.Islanders need to wake up and try to learn from the message.If you want go to the details,first of all let us look into capital Male- where MDP has won almost all positions.its the base of the government.Everything starts from there.its a place that people are well educated and aware of whats happening around them.After that have good look at Addu,fuahmulah and Kulhudhufushi.Take good lesson from those areas.People from those areas are supporting MDP for a valid reasons.
MDP is the one and only party who has made plans well in advance and trying hard to deliver the promise to the citizens of this country.MDP is the "mullah" who stood up and fought with former dictator to bring democracy to country.They made people to open their mouth in public without having any fear for life.Now the freedom of expression is beyond the limit.We need to educate our people about the freedom and Islamic view of freedom of expression.
We Maldivians need to open our mind for the current world and try to understand how the projects will work whether its mega or small.we all will agree that we need to have good plans in hand to reach our country for the next stage.How come we can have a better Maldives without proper plans? who can give me an answer for this? Thats the reason why we need to work with current government (MDP) to build this country with proper plans in hand. MDP is the only party who had promises to the public.No other party has anything other then useless word of mouth.
I also have message for government and presidents advisory board to provide proper advice to Mr president.Sometimes its disturbing when Mr president speaks in public podiums.The way he is delivers the message and promises.we all love to hear all good going to happen in our islands,atoll and nation.But he needs make sure that should be delivered in a way that people can believe and will happen from the moment or in a near future.He has given project start dates of different projects but it will take more time it to be started.Mega projects need to have lots of heavy load equipment to be delivered to the project site and all related materials plus the work force.The natural formation of this nation makes it difficult and will take lots of time to deliver all goods and service.Please think twice before saying something.....
Message for DRP- the former corrupted bodies.I would like to remind you that you need to clean and wash your party with high pressure gun and please make sure to use all anti viruses to kill all those useless viruses - by end all of you will be gone for good.Do not try to boast yourself on public TVs that you have won the majority.We will educate all those people about DRP and what DRP is going to do.We had enough thirty long freaking years.Still the same people trying hard to rule the country.We will not accept DRP - with the current heads of the party.They trying to come to power in a different formation but with the same people.Not possible, 100% sure.they will try one way or the other,anyway they will fail and already failed.
we will take out all the frogs in the well and show then the real world.Then they all will believe us.
on a side note with some humor: President has just finished his series of visits to islands to see the well being of the islanders. This series of trip named "Gaathun verkan kurun" (governing closely) was not campaign trips as some medias are reporting. That this coincide with the current election day was purely coincidence. The next series of trips already scheduled to mid 2013, that also have purely nothing to do wit 2013 election. This report just came out because, the president purely without any doubt believes all you Maldivians are truly baboons. 🙂
To all who says MDP won this election, man you guys... please, You campaigned with an open state budget against a broken opposition - you should be ashamed of this result. This is despicable.
Mr Addu Boy@ The reason for local council is to defy the idea that island plans should be made by people miles away in an AC room in Male'. So i see no reason why local councils should strictly follow MDP manifesto.
This is not to say MDP's manifesto is bad, but to inform you the mandate of president and the mandate of local councils are quite different.
This is an epic failure in this election, why I siad this, they played wrong wild card in Addu. No body has properly read what supreme court said and everything went overnight to have election in Addu. Read my words, Addu city will be abolished soon by Supreme court and Parliament. MDP and Nasheed will be taken to courts for undermining constitution. This we will see next month. Another cook or carpenter will take these issues to courts, MDP will be always on the court, ultimately they cannot do anything constructive in next few years, while people will get more angry. Wait and see.The division in DRP will grow, ultimately smaller parties will get popularity and new political system will evolve and MDP and Nasheed will be punished for the corruption.Zaki will go to Jail and Kuda Sappe will be deported.
Hi Addu Boy, I was a frog in the well before the presidential elections of 2008. I believed in change. I believed in Anii's promises with every fibre of my being. The cause was a religion for me. But after the elections what happened was really disheartening. ok, there were lots of attempts to derail developments efforts by DRP and cronies of gayoom. but what i did not want to see under Anni's leadership was outright corruption. What i did not want to see was million dollar contracts being give out to ppl like Reeko just becuase they act as the auguraanu mouths of this government. there are capable ppl inmdp. very committed strong and capable ppl willing to give their time and effort. these are ppl with integrity. but sadly these ppl were sidelined. and all that we see now is a bunch of cheap politicians like reeko taking maximum advantage of this government. All all that we see are high paying positions being created by anni just for the sake of pacifying some loud mouthed party activists. In the process most of the technocrats and ppl with integrity were sidelined.
So, please do not talk about getting this frog out of the well. Having seen it all this frog is already out of the well!
Addu boy writes: ",first of all let us look into capital Male- where MDP has won almost all positions.its the base of the government.Everything starts from there."
This is the exact reason why we need Local Council. So that everything should not start in Male'. People in the cities will never understand the idea.
As predicted Gayyooms greediness have failed DRP again by letting DRP loose control of Major population area of Maldives. Now MDP has control of 2/3 of the voting population of this country and if they could take them to "Next Maldives" 2013 election is surely in reach of MDP candidate. How many time do we have to say NO to Gayyoom and his cronies before they disappear from our life?
Gayyoom sees clear Blue from the election results. Guy should be colour blind i presume.
MDP people, don't worry you will win 2013 even if you don't relate this election to 2013 presidential election. don't be so insecure to spoil this election.
Last two election clearly show, if MDP forward with Nasheed as their presidential candidate, it will be an epic failure and he will never succeed with popular votes anymore in Maldives. 60% of the country simply hates to him , so how can he get popular vote, its humanly impossible.
ok. you people seem to believe mdp has already won 2013 election because they won these 'major urban areas'. now wait a minute and think about all the major development projects promised for these 'major areas' during the campaign. what if these projects didnt materialize? do you think they will still vote for mdp in 2013 because they did so now? some small islands voted for mdp based on the promises they made during general election. nothing happened in the last two years which is why mdp lost in these areas this time around. in politics 3 years is a loooooooooooooooooooooooooong time. so shut up and do a bit of thinking first.
@thoha yaseen
Brother, with Allahs will all these things will settle soon.If MDP,DRP or whatever party or people is taking our money due to their position and role.They are the people who will suffer in future.We all will stand against them.we are not working for a party but to build this country with fair democracy.