The line stretched out for blocks. Hundreds of people queued outside collection centres on Thursday night for cases of canned tuna “gifted” by President Dr Mohamed Muizzu. Some waited as long as eight hours. 

There were only two collection centres each in Malé and Hulhumalé. Photos and videos of the queues were widely circulated on social media, prompting a barrage of criticism over the lack of organisation or priority lanes for the disabled and elderly. 

“When I came here, I didn’t know they were issuing 100 tokens, that we have to join the queue at six o’clock – there was no announcement or anything from anywhere,” a senior citizen complained. “Now we’ve learned that there are 2,500 cases of canned tuna here and that we won’t get any when they run out of those 2,500 cases. What about all the time we’ve spent here?” 

Opposition supporters drew parallels between the poorly-planned distribution and the chaotic application process for the Hiya housing flats in 2018. Ruling party lawmakers and government activists hit back with criticism of the handling of the Covid-19 crisis and vaccine queues under the Maldivian Democratic Party government.   

More than 9,000 cases were handed out in the Greater Malé Region on Thursday night.

The distribution was halted on Friday. Citing high demand and “popularity,” the local government ministry promised better arrangements, increased the number of collection centres and introduced an online platform for issuing tokens on Saturday evening. Soldiers were enlisted for assistance. 

But the platform was briefly unavailable after a DDOS attack to the State Electricity Corporation’s mobile application. Security issues were also raised as the portal did not appear to be linked to the eFaas digital identity platform.

Minister Adam Shareef expressed regret over the inconvenience and assured that distribution will continue beyond the previously announced deadline of February 28 until each household receives a case of 48 cans of tuna.