Maldives former president Mohamed Nasheed, who was ousted from power in an alleged coup 18 months ago, had won the first round of presidential polls but failed to obtain an outright majority, initial results showed here on Sunday.

Nasheed got 45 percent of the votes but failed to gain 50 percent, which would have given him an outright win. Now he must prepare for a run-off on Sept. 28 with the candidate that gained the second highest number of votes. "At this stage none of the candidates have polled more than 50 percent," Elections Commission chief Fuad Thaufeeq told a press conference late on Saturday night. "The elections were held in a very peaceful manner but in every election there are complaints and there have been clashes in two locations and the results from those two booths have been delayed as a result," he said, adding that he would address party concerns in the coming seven days before releasing the final official result on Sept.14.

Former President Abdul Gayoom's half-brother MP Abdulla Yameen or tycoon Gasim Ibrahim will be Nasheed's rival in the run-off with preliminary results released by the Election Commission too close to make a call.

Ibrahim got 24 percent of the vote while Yameen edged ahead by just a slim 25.5 percent.

Current President Mohammad Waheed who controversially took power from former President Nasheed in February 2012 made a poor show, only managing to get 5.3 percent of the vote.

Maldivians enthusiastically joined in the elections forming long queues outside 470 polling stations spread over 200 islands. Seven international polling booths were also set up in five countries.

Transparency Maldives, who fielded the largest number of monitors, told media that voting had been uneventful in 85.3 percent of polling stations but noted that the concerns regarding the rest would not materially affect the first round results.