Some islands have started accusing PSM of manipulating the vote in its Chaalu Dhivehiraajje Award 2026 competition.

PSM says voting closes tomorrow. Until now, voting has run through a dashboard PSM set up so the public could see the vote counts as they came in. But people from the islands taking part say that from yesterday afternoon, the dashboard suddenly stopped showing the counts, and PSM has given no explanation.

The people raising the concern say that hiding the vote counts suddenly, after they had been public, is a move to swing the result a particular way. Otherwise, they say, there would be no reason to hide them so suddenly.

“This is clearly something PSM is doing to make sure a particular group they want wins. We will report this to the ACC and to the other relevant authorities. This is being done with Shakeeb behind it, to hand the top places to certain islands,” said one person raising the concern.

Another said island residents have spent thousands of rufiyaa and a great deal of time on the competition, and this is making all that effort worthless. He said it has become common to get people to work hard and give up their time for events like this, only to let them down this way. He added that this costs PSM the public’s trust and undermines its whole purpose.

Although many people have raised concerns, PSM has not said anything so far. People who contacted PSM to ask why the vote counts were suddenly hidden have reportedly received no answer.

Voting officially opened on 15 October and runs until the 15th of this month. Those raising concerns say they will not accept the result, because the vote counts were hidden with just one day left in the voting period.