Maldives parliamentary polls: MDP headed for landslide win, interim results show

Male [Maldives], Apr 7 (ANI): President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih's Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) is on course for a landslide victory in the country's third parliamentary elections, according to interim results.
With more than half of the ballot boxes counted, the MDP is projected to win 59 seats in the 87-seat Parliament, Maldives Independent reported.
Final results are expected to be announced on Sunday morning, the country's Election Commission said.
Hundreds of MDP supporters celebrated as the party as provisional results tilted in favour of the party.
As the vote counting was underway, a jubilant Solih thanked the electorate for voting for MDP, while vowing to act tough on corruption.
“You have shown that you don’t want to return to theft and corruption. There will be no space for theft in this government. Anyone with that intention should step away,” Solih told a gathering of MDP supporters.
Solih expressed hope that the Parliament will approve a law to grant investigative powers to presidential commissions formed to probe unresolved murder cases and recover stolen funds, according to Maldives Independent.
Voting for the 87-member Maldives Parliament concluded on Saturday in the island nation, with a total of 386 candidates from 10 parties vying for a seat in the country's legislature for the next five years.
The vote counting began and with 207,360 votes cast, registering a voter turnout of 78 per cent.
The Maldives' Election Commission is yet to update the elections results on the website but several media outlets have already begun posting provisional seat counts.
Solih, who came into power after defeating Abdulla Yameen in the high-stakes presidential elections last September, cast his ballot for the 19th Parliament and urged all eligible voters to participate in the electoral process in large numbers.
His MDP party needs at least 44 seats in the polls to implement the promises made during last year's presidential campaign. Former President Mohamed Nasheed, who was imprisoned by Yameen and was forced into exile, participated in the elections.
There were a total of 501 ballot boxes in the third parliamentary polls, with 491 of them in the Maldives and the remaining eight in overseas polling stations in Sri Lanka, India, Malaysia, and the UK.
Meanwhile, Yameen, who formed the People's National Congress (PNC) after his last year's shock defeat, did not contest the parliamentary polls. The PNC, which in alliance with Yameen's former party, the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM), has fielded 45 candidates. (ANI)