No change to vote count process, says Maldives election body

The Maldives election body on Saturday insisted it would count votes according to the law once ballots had closed in the presidential election.

At a tetchy press briefing on the eve of the vote, the Elections Commission chief said there were no changes to the process and reprimanded journalists for asking questions around “baseless rumours” before acknowledging there had been public concern about the count.

“I will tell you very briefly, we will do everything according to the law,” Ahmed Shareef told reporters, saying the EC had issued a statement on the matter.

Local media said the statement was only available in English, with no Dhivehi translation, and asked the EC to share the process for vote counting.