Maldives candidates sign off on crucial voters list and give nod to presidential vote
Thursday, 7 November 2013 00:25
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BY Uditha Jayasinghe
in Male
All three presidential candidates sat down with the Maldives President to sign off on a crucial voters list yesterday signalling the go-ahead for crucial polling on Saturday after months of squabbling.
Providing a more positive run up to the Presidential Elections due to be held on 9 November the three presidential candidates insisted that they were focused on holding polls before a Constitutional deadline of 11 November.
This is the third time that the Maldives is attempting to elect a president after Supreme Court intervention and deep political infighting derailed two previous attempts.
The agreement to sign the list was reached during the sit-down between opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) presidential candidate Mohamed Nasheed, Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) candidate Abdulla Yamin and Jumhoory Party (JP) candidate Gasim Ibrahim with outgoing President Mohamed Waheed Hassan.
Representatives of all three candidates were also at the Elections Commission signing the list.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting at the president’s office, both Yamin and Gasim who had been dragging their feet over endorsing the voters’ list told reporters that they want a new president to be elected before the constitutional deadline.
“If there is no clear winner after the Saturday polling we are willing to have a second round run-off on Sunday if the Elections Commissioner can arrange it,” Gasim told media.
The positive attitude has been a long time coming as Gasim’s allegations of mass scale vote rigging resulted in the annulment of the first round of voting on 7 September.
Local and international monitors had said the poll was free and fair.
Yamin and Gasim also refused to sign off on the voter’s list during the second attempt at a vote on 19 October resulting in police blocking the elections.
A cornered Elections Commissioner called off the poll just hours before voting was to begin.
The Maldives has been under intense pressure from the international community led by the US and India to resume the democratic process to elect a new president as stipulated in the Constitution.
Unless a new president is elected by 11 November the speaker will take over and oversee the transition of power. However such a move could push the Maldives and its lucrative tourism industry into further political disarray.
