A total of 14 individuals have submitted their candidacy forms to contest three vacant seats in the Male' City Council.
Elections Commission of the Maldives (ECM) stated that four candidates will be contesting the South Henveiru constituency seat, while five candidates will be contesting the Central Henveiru seat and South Maafannu seat each.
The Male' City Council by-election and Male' City mayoral by-election will be held on January 13. Five candidates will be contesting the mayoral seat. They are Former Attorney General Azima Shakoor, who will be running as the candidate of the ruling PPM/PNC coalition, and former CEO of MTCC Adam Azim, who will be running as the candidate of the main opposition MDP.
Other candidates include incumbent City Councilor Mohamed Saif Fathih representing The Democrats and former Commissioner of Police Hussain Waheed. In addition, Shuaib Ali will be running as independent an independent candidate. ECM will be assigning the numbers for the mayoral candidates on December 16.
The position of Male’ City mayor became vacant after President Dr. Mohamed Muazu resigned to assume office in November. Simultaneously, the three council seats became vacant as councilors resigned to take on roles in the new administration.