Colombo, September 23
Voting was extended in the Maldives presidential election Sunday amid technical glitches, after police raided the opposition’s campaign headquarters, fuelling fears of rigging in favour of China-friendly incumbent President Abdulla Yameen.
The Elections Commission said balloting was extended by three hours until 7 pm (local time) because of technical glitches with tablet computers containing electoral rolls, and officials had to use manual systems to verify voters.
Many voters said they stood in line for over five hours to vote in many parts of the Indian Ocean archipelago, as well as in neighbouring Sri Lanka and India where expatriate Maldivians voted.
“Eight hours & counting. Waiting to exercise my democratic right! Let’s do this, Insha Allah!,” former foreign minister Dunya Maumoon said on Twitter.
Maumoon, who is also the estranged niece of Yameen and daughter of former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, voted at a polling booth in the Maldivian embassy in Colombo.
Yameen, who is expected to retain power, has imprisoned or forced into exile almost all his main rivals in a crackdown. Critics say he is returning the honeymoon island nation to authoritarian rule.
The process 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.
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.
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.
Yameen’s challenger, the relatively unknown Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, also cast his vote. Solih has the backing of a united opposition trying to oust Yameen. It has struggled for visibility with the electorate because the media is fearful of falling foul of heavy-handed decrees and reporting restrictions.
Mohamed Nasheed, who was elected president of a newly-democratic Maldives in 2008 but who now lives in exile, urged the international community to reject the results of the election.
There were long queues in Male and at embassies abroad, where the opposition had urged Maldivians to turn out and vote.
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 have been allowed in.
The Asian Network for Free Elections, a foreign monitoring group that was denied access to the Maldives, said the campaign was heavily tilted in favour of 59-year-old Yameen.
Local observers said the balloting itself went off peacefully and most of the delays were due to technical issues with electronic voter registers. Results are expected by early Monday. — AFP
International monitors stay away from elections
- Most poll monitors, including those from the European Union and the United Nations, declined the government’s invitation to observe the election, fearing their presence might be used to endorse Yameen’s re-election even after possible vote rigging
- The country has been in political turmoil since February, when Yameen imposed a state of emergency to annul a Supreme Court ruling that quashed the convictions of nine opposition leaders, including former President Mohamed Nasheed
- Yameen has disregarded calls from the United Nations, several Western countries and India for an amicable solution to the crisis. Ahead of the vote, Human Rights Watch urged foreign governments to press the Maldives to uphold democratic rights
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