No outright majority in Maldives election

The party of the Maldives' dissident-turned-president has likely won the most seats in the country's first multiparty legislative elections, but not enough for an outright majority, according to preliminary results cited by a news report.

Any result for President Mohamad Nasheed shy of the 39 seats needed for a majority in the 77-seat legislature would mean his administration would have to rely on independent and minor-party lawmakers to pass its legislative agenda.

But Nasheed, the former political prisoner who ended the 30-year rule of former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom last year in the Indian Ocean archipelago's first multiparty presidential election, would remain in charge of the government, appointing the Cabinet.

Preliminary results from the Elections Commission released Sunday showed Nasheed's Maldivian Democratic Party projected to win 31 seats, according to the www.minivannews.com Web site. Gayoom's Maldives People's Party was expected to secure 24 seats, the Web site said.

Source: jpost.com

Maldives holds elections

Maldavians went to polls yesterday. Political parties in the Maldives were legalized on June 2, 2005 after a unanimous vote in the Majlis allowed a multi-party system to contest in presidential and parliamentary elections.

On February 10, 2009, the Majlis voted 36–0 with one abstention to pass the Parliamentary Constituencies Bill, Under the law, each administrative atoll's population determines how many electoral constituencies will be created and that two Members of Parliament (MP) should be elected for the five thousand residents registered in the area.

The Elections Commission of the Maldives announced there are 214,405 eligible voters.

Source: sundaytimes.lk

Maldives holds first fully democratic parliamentary election

The people of the Maldives in the Indian Ocean will vote on Saturday in the country's first ever fully democratic parliamentary election.

The election will be a key test for President Mohamed Nasheed - but also for Britain's Conservative party, which has coached his candidates in the art of contesting polls that are free and fair.

Mr Nasheed, a former political prisoner of conscience who was once granted political asylum by Britain, scored a surprise victory last October after islanders turned against his predecessor, Maumoon Adbul Gayoom, overwhelmingly voting him out in a presidential poll that the hardline ruler accepted.

The election today will be closely observed in London. The Conservatives have over the last five years sent regular delegations to support Mr Nasheed and his Maldivian Democratic Party.

Earlier this year Richard Spring, the vice chairman of the party, led a team to the island and last month MDP activists were trained by Sheila Gunn, John Major's former press spokesman.

The election will be critical to Mr Nasheed's success in being able to deliver on a range of international and domestic commitments, including his desire to use British scientists to study the impacts of climate change. He wants to develop the Maldives as a global "laboratory" for studying the effects of sea level rise as nowhere on the islands is more than a metre and a half above the waves.

Mr Nasheed's MDP will be contesting 74 of the 77 seats in the People's Majlis or parliament. His main opponent will be the former ruling Dhivelhi Rahyithunge Party led by Mr Gayoom. Mr Nasheed has predicted that his MDP will win a majority.

"I'm quietly confident" said Miss Gunn, "and I would have thought the MDP will get around 50 seats. However, the result is difficult to predict as Gayoom is campaigning very hard and there is a feeling among some voters that if Nasheed is president then the MDP should not also run the parliament."

The global recession has led to a sharp decline in tourists visiting the islands and greatly increased the costs associated with importing food and goods.

Source: telegraph.co.uk

Tories help new Maldives president prepare for parliamentary elections

A delegation of senior Tories flew to the Maldives on Tuesday to help prepare the island nation's new president for the country's first-ever multi-party democratic parliamentary elections next month.

Mr Nasheed, known locally as Anni, became president on Oct 29 with the support of a broad coalition that included candidates from four other political parties Photo: AP

Mohammed Nasheed, a one-time Amnesty International "prisoner of conscience", spectacularly beat his former jailer and Asia's longest-serving ruler, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, in the Maldives' first democratic election in October.

But now his Maldivian Democratic Party faces its first test next month, with all the seats in the People's Majlis, or parliament, being contested.

The Tories played a key role in Mr Nasheed's defeat of Mr Gayoom, who had been in power for 30 years, and the new president has called on Richard Spring MP, vice-chairman of the Conservative party, to lend advice on how the MDP can capture a majority in the February elections.

At present the MDP's coalition has a small working majority based solely on presidential appointments under the old system.

Mr Nasheed, known locally as Anni, became president on Oct 29 with the support of a broad coalition that included candidates from four other political parties.

His MDP is closely aligned with the Conservative Party and Anni, who graduated from John Moore University, Liverpool, is known to be a good friend of the shadow foreign secretary, William Hague.

His own long political journey to the presidency began at Dauntsey's, the public school in rural Wiltshire where he attended sixth form. There he met David Hardingham, who later formed the Friends of Maldives, a British-based pressure group which helped to alert the world to the brutality of Mr Gayooms regime.

"Dauntsey's old boy and girl network assisted me a lot. Its education has served me well and Britain's private school education has a deserved reputation for excellence", he said.

After graduating in 1989, Mr Nasheed returned to the Maldives, where he soon became a champion of the democratic movement and a thorn in Mr Gayoom's side. During the next 19 years, Mr Gayoom mounted a sustained campaign of intimidation against him, exiling him on numerous occasions and allegedly ordering his torture.

As a result of his treatment, in 2004 Mr Nasheed was granted political asylum in Britain, where he began lobbying MPs to put pressure on Mr Gayoom.

"It was the Conservatives who took an interest in us," he said. "Their human rights group took up our case and put pressure on the British government. At their conference they put me in touch with centre-right parties from Serbia to Sri Lanka and gave me a platform from which to tell the world about what was happening in the Maldives".

The MDP grew out of a grassroots organisation run by volunteer political activists and street campaigners dedicated to the overthrow of Mr Gayoom. As political parties were formally banned until 2005 by Mr Gayoom, the MDP is still quite young in political terms.

From 2006, the Tories sent party members to the islands to help Mr Nasheed campaign.

Mr Spring will be joined by Karen Lumley, the prospective parliamentary candidate for Redditch and Mike Nichols, an activist. During the four-day visit, the delegation will give advice on strategic alliance building, messaging and campaigning in the run up to the election. Mr Spring said: "They deserve our support and they will certainly get it. We want to keep a spotlight on events unfolding in the Maldives."

"I am looking forward to receiving Richard's delegation and formally thanking the Conservative party for all the help they have given me. With their continued assistance I'm sure the MDP will win a handsome victory at the forthcoming elections" Mr Nasheed said.

The visit will also be used to make a plea for British climate change scientists to visit the Maldives to study the effect of rising sea levels. Nowhere on the islands is more than one and a half metres above sea level, and scientists have given warning that the Maldives could disappear completely under the waves in just 150 years' time.

Mr Nasheed is expected to request further British investment to boost the fragile economy of the Maldives, after having already negotiated with a number of British firms, including the telecommunications provider Cable and Wireless.

Last year over 100,000 Britons visited the islands, making them the country's largest single tourist market. However, the Maldives are an expensive holiday destination and as Britain is in recession, numbers this year are predicted to be well below this figure.

Source: telegraph.co.uk