The Maldives 30-year incumbent leader is ahead in the islands' first multiparty presidential election, according to preliminary results on Thursday from a poll marred by rigging charges and delays that took it into a second day.
Polling closed on Thursday morning -- some 12 hours behind schedule -- and shortly afterwards the election commission said President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom had 39.8 percent of the 130,316 votes counted.
The election in the sleepy Maldives, best known as a tropical Indian Ocean hideaway for Hollywood stars, is the culmination of years of agitation for democratic reforms which Gayoom, 71, finally signed into law in August.
One of the chief agitators for those reforms, Mohamed Nasheed, was in second place with 26.35 percent. Nasheed, known as Anni, was jailed repeatedly by Asia's longest-serving leader on what rights groups said were trumped-up charges.
"We will try to have the final result at 11:30 p.m. (1830 GMT). Voting is no longer going on. Counting is going on," Elections Commissioner Mohamed Ibrahim told a press conference.
The commission said it had no turnout figures for the 208,252 registered voters, but had verified 68 percent of the 396 ballot boxes.
But given the wide disparity in the size of polling stations spread over 200 inhabited islands and a few luxury resort islands it was hard to gain a clear picture, the board said.
If no one gets 50 percent of the vote, it will go to a runoff due within 10 days.
DELAYED POLLING
Just a few hours after polling opened on Wednesday, voters complained of missing registrations or ink that was supposed to be indelible washing off the hands of those who had voted.
After an emergency meeting, the electoral board said anyone with an ID card could vote, prompted three opposition challengers to declare the poll would be subject to fraud and double-voting.
But Nasheed, whose vocal criticism throughout Gayoom's reign repeatedly landed him in jail, said the problems were too minor to affect the vote.
The decision to open up voting led the polls, which had been due to end at 8 p.m. (1500 GMT) on Wednesday, to drag into the Thursday morning.
Many Maldivians had expected vote-rigging and bribery. Despite some minor threats in the final days of campaigning, the polling went peacefully amid a heavy security presence.
Gayoom is seeking a seventh term running the island nation of 300,000 mainly Sunni Muslims, which in the past he has been accused of ruling like a sultanate.
That form of government was abolished on the islands, located 800 km (500 miles) off the tip of India, 40 years ago.
He campaigned on a record of developing tourism to make per capita income on the chain of 1,192 islands the highest in South Asia.
But critics say tourism, which directly accounts for 28 percent of GDP and by some estimates up to 70 percent indirectly, has only benefited a small group surrounding him.
Diplomats had hoped the poll will be an example of a credible democratic election in a Muslim majority nation, with a non-violent transition should power change hands. Gayoom has pledged a peaceful handover if he loses.
Gayoom drew international criticism after a heavy-handed crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, which eventually led to his signing into law last month a new constitution that established an independent judiciary and electoral body.
It also abolished the old style of voting for president, where a parliament-approved candidate stood in a yes-no referendum that Gayoom won six times.
Source: in.reuters.com
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