Counting of West Henveiru box resumes under EC, police supervision following disputes

Counting for the Henveiru West constituency ballot box at Majeediyya School, which had been paused due to disputes during ballot counting in Saturday’s Local Council and Women’s Development Committee elections—as well as a referendum on merging the presidential and parliamentary elections—has now resumed under the supervision of police and Elections Commission (EC) officials.

EC’s vice president Abdul Rahman Salah Rasheed told Sun that the disagreement arose when observers questioned how an official classified certain ballots as either valid or invalid. He added that the matter has since been settled and counting is now back underway.

Salah explained that commission staff stepped in to review the process, and a recount is currently in progress.

Meanwhile, Ahmed Saleem (Maaz Saleem), an MDP National Council member and observer for the Henveiru West constituency, claimed that ballot counting at the disputed box was being handled solely at the discretion of official assigned to box. He highlighted a case where a ballot was rejected because the voter marked the mayoral section correctly but left the candidate section blank.

Saleem noted that a similar situation had occurred at a polling station in the Islamic University, where EC, after reviewing a formal complaint, ruled such ballots valid, confirming that the voting instructions had been properly followed.

Salah also stated that out of 588 ballot boxes used in the election, 581 have been closed following the end of voting, while polling continues at seven stations.

According to EC data, 185,709 people had voted as of 16:00pm, accounting for 63 percent of the 294,876 eligible voters. This included 92,567 women and 93,142 men.

The final voter turnout will be confirmed once counting across all ballot boxes is completed.