While both the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) and its main rival the Dhivehi Rahyithunge Party (DRP), claimed victory in the country’s first ever multi party parliamentary election held on Saturday, the Elections Commission said that provisional results would be announced yesterday night.

At the time of going to press, the Elections Commission said that its official website had been hacked, but assured that the data base had not been affected. "We are in the process of fixing the vulnerabilities and uploading the site again."

Another reason for the delay in releasing the provisional results the Elections Commission said was because they were double checking the result sheets sent by the ballot centers, to ensure that they were valid.

Meanwhile, Mohamed Ghassan Maumoon, the son of former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom who contested the Thaa Thimarafushi Dhaaira constituency, has complained to the Commonwealth Observer team that apart from general voter intimidation, harassment and violence perpetuated allegedly by his rival MDP candidate Mohamed Mustafa and supporters, a serious breach of the election law took place on Sunday night, where ballot boxes were reopened after closure. "Hence, this has put into serious question the integrity of process and validity of the results. We have submitted our complaints to the necessary authorities including the Election Complaints Bureau and the Human Rights Commission.We met with Nishana Jayawickrema from the Commonwealth Observer team, to brief her on our concerns. In the interest of democracy and fair electoral process, we shall be pursuing all legal avenues in order to rectify this unfortunate situation."