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MALDIVES-VOTE
Maldives opposition leader wins presidential poll
COLOMBO, Sept 24, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Opposition leader Ibrahim Mohamed Solih
won the Maldives’ presidential election, results showed Monday, a surprise
defeat for President Abdulla Yameen following a campaign observers said was
rigged in the strongman’s favour.
Results released by the Elections Commission early Monday morning showed
Solih had secured 58.3 percent of the popular vote.
Celebrations broke out across the tropical archipelago with opposition
supporters carrying yellow flags of Solih’s Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP)
and dancing on the streets. There was no response from Yameen after results
were announced.
Solih had the backing of a united opposition trying to oust Yameen but
struggled for visibility with the electorate, with local media fearful of
falling afoul of heavy-handed decrees and reporting restrictions.
There were also no other candidates at Sunday’s election held with all key
dissidents either in jail or exile.
Earlier in the night Solih had called on Yameen to concede defeat once the
tally showed he had an unassailable lead.
“I call on Yameen to respect the will of the people and bring about a
peaceful, smooth transfer of power,” he said on television.
He also urged the incumbent to immediately release scores of political
prisoners.
Yameen, who was widely tipped to retain power, had jailed or forced into
exile almost all of his main rivals.
Before polls opened, police raided the campaign headquarters of the
opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) and searched the building for
several hours in a bid to stop what they called “illegal activities”. There
were no arrests.
Mohamed Nasheed, the head of the MDP, said the vote would “bring the
country back to the democratic path”.
Yameen would have no option but to concede defeat, said Nasheed, who was
elected president of a newly-democratic Maldives in 2008 but currently lives
in exile.
“He will not have people around him who will support him to fight on and
stay,” he told AFP.
– Heavy turnout –
The poll is being closely watched by regional rivals India and China, who
are jostling to influence Indian Ocean nations. The European Union and United
States, meanwhile, have threatened sanctions if the vote is not free and
fair.
Many voters across the Indian Ocean archipelago said they stood in line
for over five hours to cast their ballots, while expatriate Maldivians voted
in neighbouring Sri Lanka and India.
The Election Commission said balloting was extended by three hours until
7:00 pm (1400 GMT) because of technical glitches suffered by tablet computers
containing electoral rolls, with officials using manual systems to verify
voters’ identities.
An election official said the deadline was also extended due to heavy
voter turnout, which was later declared at 88 percent.
Yameen voted minutes after polling booths opened in the capital Male,
where opposition campaign efforts had been frustrated by a media crackdown
and police harassment.
– Monitors barred –
Some 262,000 people in the archipelago — famed for its white beaches and
blue lagoons — were eligible to vote in an election from which independent
international monitors have been barred.
Only a handful of foreign media were allowed in to cover the poll.
The Asian Network for Free Elections, a foreign monitoring group that was
denied access to the Maldives, said the campaign had been heavily tilted in
favour of 59-year-old Yameen.
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.
Before the election there were warnings that Yameen could try to hold on
to power at all costs.
In February he declared a state of emergency, suspended the constitution
and ordered troops to storm the Supreme Court and arrest judges and other
rivals to stave off impeachment.
Yameen told supporters on the eve of the election he had overcome “huge
obstacles” since controversially winning power in a contested run-off in
2013, but had handled the challenges “with resilience”.
The crackdown attracted international censure and fears the Maldives was
slipping back into one-man rule just a decade after transitioning to
democracy.
India, long influential in Maldives affairs — it sent troops and warships
in 1988 to stop a coup attempt — expressed hopes the election would
represent a return to democratic norms.
In recent years Yameen has drifted closer to China, India’s chief regional
rival, taking hundreds of millions of dollars from Beijing for major
infrastructure projects.
BSS/AFP/GMR/0751 hrs