Maldives Opens Public Vote on AI Priorities as Co.Lab 26 Gets Underway

The Maldives has taken an unusual step in national digital governance. For the first time, citizens can vote directly on which artificial intelligence projects the government should build first.

The public vote opened on 17th May as part of Co.Lab 26, a four-day national initiative running from 18 to 21 May at Hotel Jen in Male'. The event is jointly organized by the Maldives Innovation and Digital Company (MINDCo) and the Bank of Maldives (BML).

The voting period will remain open for seven days. It is accessible online in both Dhivehi and English through a dedicated digital platform, with votes verified by SMS.

How the Process Works

The vote is one part of a three-stage prioritization system designed to determine which AI projects move forward first under the country's Maldives 2.0 digital transformation agenda.

Government institutions spent the first day of Co.Lab 26 identifying practical AI use cases. These are specific scenarios where artificial intelligence could improve or speed up public services, reduce administrative work, or support better data-driven decision-making across sectors, including education, healthcare, social security, environmental management, and tourism.

On the second day, today, those identified challenges are being assessed through a structured scoring framework. An expert jury of technical and governance specialists provides 40 percent of the score. A live audience vote at the event contributes another 30 percent. Public voting online accounts for the remaining 30 percent.

The combined scores will determine the order in which projects are developed, not which ones survive. According to MINDCo, every use case that reaches Wave 1 will eventually be built. The vote simply determines which projects begin first.

A New Governance Model for AI

The public vote is a deliberate design choice. MINDCo says that running all stages through a single unified platform ensures that every prioritization decision has a clear, traceable record.

The National AI and Data Competency Centre (NADCC) was established under a memorandum of understanding between MINDCo and BML as part of the government's Maldives 2.0 digital transformation programme. According to BML, the centre will serve as a national resource to assist state institutions and key economic sectors in using data and AI in a safe and responsible manner.

Co.Lab 26 marks the official public launch of the NADCC.

Maldives 2.0 was introduced in early 2025 under President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu and defined eight strategic pillars for modern digital governance, emphasizing transparency, interoperability, inclusion, and a citizen-centered approach to public services. Mindco

The Hackathon Follows

Once the prioritization process concludes, Co.Lab 26 transitions into a two-day hackathon from 20 to 21 May. Selected teams will work with expert mentors to develop early-stage prototypes for the highest-ranked use cases.

The hackathon runs across two tracks. The first addresses applied AI for government, with teams building solutions tied directly to the challenges identified and ranked during the first two days. The second track focuses on financial technology and uses BML's Swipe API platform, challenging participants to develop new-generation digital payment tools within a real-world banking environment.

Prototypes from both tracks are intended to feed into a long-term development pipeline managed by the NADCC, rather than function as finished systems.

Why This Matters

The Maldives faces real constraints in delivering public services. The country's roughly 200 inhabited islands are spread across 90,000 square kilometers of ocean. Geographic fragmentation drives up service costs and widens gaps between Male' and outer atolls in areas such as healthcare access, education quality, and administrative efficiency.

Digital tools, if properly designed and governed, could narrow some of those gaps. Co.Lab 26 represents an attempt to build that capacity systematically rather than through isolated projects.

BML noted that the centre aims to strengthen governance, use AI and data in public service delivery, increase institutional capacity, and provide solutions for building a resilient economy aligned with national development priorities.

The inclusion of a public vote adds a layer of civic legitimacy to the process. Whether public participation meaningfully shapes outcomes will become clearer once final Wave 1 priorities are announced following the close of the seven-day voting window.

Citizens can cast their votes at mindco.mv.