Yaamin, received 30 percent of the first-round votes and it courting the support of the third-placed candidate, tourist resort owner Qasim Ibrahim, who received 23 percent.
Maldives is under scrutiny after failing to elect a president in three attempts since September and after incumbent President Mohamed Waheed Hassan extended his term in office by six days, purportedly to avoid a constitutional void because the country is past the legal deadline to elect a new president.
Some voters told The Associated Press that they were running out of patience.
“We are fed up with politics. It has slowed our life. There is no business anymore,” said Abdullah Abeedh, a 25-year-old photographer.
The Supreme Court annulled results of an election conducted Sept. 7 because it found that the voters' registry contained fake names and those of dead people.
Police stopped a second attempt at holding the election because all the candidates had not accepted a new voters' list as the court mandated.
