The Elections Commission of the Maldives (ECM) has revealed that conducting the second round of the presidential election will cost USD2.9 million.
At a press conference, Vice President of ECM Ismail Habeeb said that a USD2.9 million budget will be submitted to the Ministry of Finance in order to receive enough funds to pay election officials, print ballot papers, and for other expenditures.
Last year, ECM submitted a USD7.8 million budget to conduct the 2023 presidential election, after taking into account a situation in which two rounds might have to be held. As such, ECM estimated that USD6.2 million will be needed for the first round and USD1.6 million will be needed for the second round. The electoral body stated the highest expenditure for the presidential election will go towards travel to the atolls and abroad. Other large expenditures included training election officials, printing ballot papers, and other administrative tasks.
The 2018 presidential election was the only time a candidate had won in the first round. However, the Parliament allocated a USD5.8 million budget for the election in the proposed state budget for 2023.
The second round of the presidential election is scheduled to be held on September 30 after none of the candidates received 50% of the votes to win in the first round. The candidate of the People's National Congress (PNC) Dr. Mohamed Muizzu led with 46% of the votes while President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih was in second with 39%.