Voting at the MDP Primaries began today at 2:30 p.m and is arranged to go on until 8:30 p.m tonight. While 279 candidates are running in the Primaries, former President Nasheed is one of the candidates. Other candidates include current and past members of Parliament as well as former cabinet members.

With 89, 091 members registered under MDP will be able to vote today, 270 ballot boxes have been placed throughout the country. Nine of the boxes have been placed abroad. Vote boxes placed abroad include ones in Sri Lanka, Trivandrum in India and Malaysia.

MDP has announced that members of the party will be running for 86 constituencies - this includes all constituencies except one.

Voting is ongoing in both Sri Lanka and India. Voting at Arabia School and Ameeniya Scool had been stalled due to no present staff at some voting booths.

Vote boxes at Kalaafaanu School for Thaa Atoll, and Laamu Atoll constituencies are opened and voting is on-going. While a vote box at Imaaduddin School was without a stamp, the voting had stalled and several members were expressing their outrage. It has been reported that several vote boxes at Imaduddin School are now active. Vilingili constituency vote box in Male’ is also facing delays.

MDP has urged all members to rush to the voting booths to cast their vote.

The Elections Commission has urged all voters to consider Islamic laws and regulations and to not carry out any actions that violate the fundamental rights of any political party.