The Elections Commission of the Maldives (ECM) has announced ongoing efforts to disburse allowances to approximately 5,500 officials who served at polling stations during the presidential elections.
Vice President of ECM Ismail Habeeb stated that the commission has already transferred allowances to some officials including trainers, coordinators, liaison officers, and officials stationed in the Male' region, with the remaining officials set to receive their allowances shortly. He assured that allowances estimated a total cost of over USD1.2 million would be deposited to all officials soon. As such, ECM has earmarked USD978 for polling station heads, USD78 for assistants to polling station heads, USD65 for polling station officials, and USD32 for reserve officials.
The overall budget allocated for both rounds of the presidential election amounts to USD8.7 million. A total of 574 ballot boxes were placed during the first round of the presidential elections, while the number increased to 586 in the second round.