ZCZC
BFF-08
MALDIVES-VOTE
Maldives strongman eyes new term as monitors cry foul
COLOMBO, Sept 23, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – People in the Maldives vote Sunday in
elections that international monitors and the opposition fear will be rigged
to ensure that China-friendly strongman Abdulla Yameen remains in power.
Yameen has imprisoned or forced into exile all his main rivals.
He has borrowed hundreds of millions of dollars from China to build up
infrastructure, alarming the nation’s longtime backer India.
The EU is ready to slap travel bans and asset freezes on individuals “if
the situation does not improve”, while the US has warned it would “consider
appropriate measures” against those undermining democracy in the country of
1,200 islands.
Some 260,000 people in the archipelago famed for its white beaches and blue
lagoons can vote in an election from which independent international monitors
have been barred.
Only a handful of foreign media have been allowed in.
Foreign poll monitoring group the Asian Network for Free Elections said the
campaign was heavily tilted in favour of the 59-year-old Yameen, who was seen
before his rise to power as an unremarkable civil servant.
The group said it did not expect a fair contest.
“In the absence of any scrutiny (of the elections) or pressure (on the
government), sombre events surely loom ahead for the people of Maldives,” the
monitors said on the eve of the vote.
In February, Yameen alarmed the international community by imposing a state
of emergency, suspending the constitution and sending troops to stop members
of parliament who were trying to impeach him.
The chief justice and a judge of the Supreme Court were jailed along with
Yameen’s half-brother Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, president for 30 years until 2008
and the man who helped Yameen come to power in 2013.
The UN said the arrest of judges was an “outright assault on democracy.”
Mohamed Nasheed, the Maldives’ first democratically elected president from
2008-12 but now in exile, called Friday for the international community to
reject the election result.
“Mathematically, it is not possible for Yameen to win because all
opposition parties are united against him. But the results they will announce
will be different to what is actually in the ballot boxes,” Nasheed said from
Sri Lanka.
– Silence dissent –
Nasheed was forced to withdraw from the presidential race after the
Maldives election commission disqualified him because of a 2015 terrorism
conviction.
The United Nations said the conviction and 13-year jail sentence were
politically motivated. Yameen’s government has refused to abide by a UN
ruling which ordered restitution and compensation to Nasheed.
A relatively unknown opposition politician, Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, 54, is
backed by Nasheed to try to beat Yameen. There are no other candidates.
However Solih has struggled for visibility with the electorate because the
media is fearful of falling foul of heavy-handed decrees and reporting
restrictions.
The government has used “vaguely worded laws to silence dissent and to
intimidate and imprison critics”, some of whom have been assaulted and even
murdered, according to Human Rights Watch.
“The election campaign reporting is severely restricted by the defamation
law. This is not fair reporting, but we have no choice,” one local journalist
told AFP, preferring to remain anonymous for fear of repercussions.
On Saturday police briefly raided the campaign headquarters of the
opposition, the opposition said.
“We are very worried about the situation. But we have trust in our people,”
Solih told reporters in Colombo during a visit to canvass support from the
Maldivian community living in Sri Lanka.
Eligible voters in neighbouring Sri Lanka and India along with those in
Malaysia are entitled to vote on Sunday. The results are expected by midday
Monday.
A candidate must secure 50 percent of the vote to win outright, failing
which there would be a run off three days later.
BSS/AFP/GMR/0917 hrs