Ahmad Shareef, the head of the Maldives’ Elections Commission, has criticized the country’s political parties for resorting to “irresponsible” behaviors while the counting for votes of local council elections was going on, reported Raajje Tv.

Last week, the country saw the elections for local and women development councils in the country after a delay of more than a year. However, earlier this week, an office of the ruling party was attacked in the Capital, Male. Following this, many leaders from both, the ruling and opposition parties, gathered outside of the commission building. 

In an interview to Raajje TV, Shareef said the incident happened while the commission was still recounting the votes of the remaining 18 ballot boxes, however, the counting was deferred after the incident. 

The commission opted for the recounting as it discovered some inconsistencies in data entries.  

No one would be able to tamper with the election results just because some ballot boxes had seen their security seals ripped open for the re-counting of votes, Shareef said. He added the re-counting of votes had not been initiated due to complaints on behalf of the public but in order to verify results prior to announcing them.

The archipelago’s ruling party, MDP, got a setback when it lost the Male Municipality Council, the most populated region in the country, elections to an opposition candidate. However, it managed to win the rest three councils.