Counting of votes began across the Maldives and overseas locations after polls closed at 5 p.m. local time in the country’s presidential election runoff on Saturday.
The provisional results are expected to be announced in a few hours.
Dr Mohamed Muizzu, the presidential candidate for the opposition People’s National Congress (PNC), faced off against incumbent President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP). Muizzu led the first round of voting earlier this month with 46.06% of the vote, while President Solih secured 39.05%, setting the stage for today’s decisive showdown.
A total of 282,804 were eligible to vote in the runoff election.