No foreign ballot boxes as re-registration threshold not met

More than 26,000 people have re-registered to vote in the upcoming local council elections and the referendum on merging the presidential and parliamentary elections, the Elections Commission said on Tuesday.

The deadline for re-registration for the 4 April polls expired at 3.00 pm on Monday.

The Elections Commission said that no ballot boxes will be placed in any foreign country for this election, as the number of re-registered voters abroad did not meet the required threshold. The commission had earlier stated that polling stations would be set up in Malaysia and the Maldives, but the decision was later revised.

Elections Commission member and spokesperson Salah Rasheed said that 26,454 people completed re-registration before the deadline.

He said the number of re-registrations was insufficient to justify placing ballot boxes in any foreign country, and the commission has therefore decided not to conduct overseas voting for this election.

Salah Rasheed added that 21 resorts recorded sufficient re-registrations to warrant the placement of ballot boxes.

According to the Elections Commission, more than 26,000 people re-registered for the upcoming polls, compared with about 13,000 who re-registered for the parliamentary election held last year. The re-registration process was opened to allow voters to cast ballots in locations other than where they are registered for parliamentary elections.