Maldives election: Abdulla Yameen wins run-off vote

Abdulla Yameen has won the presidential election run-off vote in the Maldives, according to near-final results.

Mr Yameen had 51.3% of the vote compared with 48.6% for ex-President Mohamed Nasheed, with 98% of ballots counted, the Election Commission said.

Mr Nasheed had won 47% in the first round this month, just short of the 50% needed for outright victory, in an election process mired in controversy.

Mr Yameen is half-brother to Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who ruled for 30 years.

Imad Masood, a spokesman for outgoing President Mohamed Waheed, told Reuters there were "four more boxes yet to be counted, but they won't make any difference to the final results".

There have been months of legal and political wrangling over the election, causing concern among foreign diplomats.

One result was annulled and two votes cancelled by the courts.

Mr Nasheed had been seeking to regain power after he was forced to resign in 2012.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24974019#TWEET957068

Maldives presidential runoff: Yameen takes initial lead

Former President Mohammed Nasheed with nearly 48.5 per cent of votes was trailing his rival Abdulla Yameen with 51.5 per cent of votes in the controversy-ridden presidential runoff in the Maldives on Saturday, according to initial trends in the media.

With nearly 140 of the total of 475 ballot boxes counted so far, Progressive Party of Maldives leader Mr. Yameen, the half-brother of former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, had bagged 21,573 votes (51.5 per cent) as compared to Maldivian Democratic Party candidate Mr. Nasheed, who got 20,499 (48.5 per cent), the media reported.

Mr. Nasheed, who won the first multi-party elections in 2008 and ended the 30-year autocratic rule of Mr. Gayoom, had resigned under duress in a controversial transfer of power in February 2012 .

The archipelago nation did not hold any mid-term polls as the Constitution does not permit it.

Elections Commission chief Fuwad Thowfeek on Saturday said preliminary results will be announced by midnight while a formal announcement of the final outcome will be made on Sunday.

Mr. Thowfeek told reporters that fewer complaints were received by the Commission during the latest polls.

Voters queued up outside polling stations as voting began at 7.30 a.m. across the Maldives for the second round of the much delayed election to choose a new president amidst a constitutional crisis.

The current polls mark the Maldives’ third attempt to elect a new President since September. The runoff became necessary as none of the candidates could muster over 50 per cent votes in the first round of elections held on November 9, 2013.

In a crucial re-vote on November 9, 2013 Mr. Nasheed bagged 46.4 per cent of the votes, a marginal increase from his previous tally of 45.45 per cent votes in the September 7, 2013 polls that were annulled by the Supreme Court.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/south-asia/voting-ends-in-maldives-presidential-runoff/article5357532.ece

Abdulla Yameen Wins Maldives Election Run-off

Abdulla Yameen won the Maldives presidential election run-off on Saturday, the spokesman for the outgoing leader said, beating favorite Mohamed Nasheed in a close-run contest that voters hope will end nearly two years of political turmoil.

The result, yet to be confirmed by the Election Commission, represents a victory for the political old guard that united behind Yameen, a half-brother of Maumoon Abdul Gayoom who ruled for 30 years and was deemed a dictator by rights groups.

Imad Masood, spokesman for outgoing president Mohamed Waheed, said Yameen had won more than 51 percent of the vote. “Four more boxes are yet to be counted, but they won't make any difference to the final results,” he told Reuters.

Source: http://www.voanews.com/content/maldives-holds-presidential-runoff-election/1791417.html

Maldives vote for president after delay

MALE: Voters in the Maldives lined up Saturday in a presidential runoff that comes amid international concerns that the tiny archipelago nation may slip back to strongman rule after long delays in the election.

People were arriving at schools being used as voting stations well before polling started in an election that pits the country's first democratically elected leader and the brother of a longtime autocrat.

Mohamed Nasheed, who was elected president in the country's first multiparty polls in 2008, is favored to win after receiving nearly 47 per cent of the vote in the first round on Nov 9.

His failure to get at least 50 per cent for an outright win required a runoff against Yaamin Abdul Gayoom, a brother of 30-year autocratic ruler Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.

Yaamin, received 30 per cent of the first-round votes and it courting the support of the third-placed candidate, tourist resort owner Qasim Ibrahim, who received 23 per cent.

Maldives is under scrutiny after failing to elect a president in three attempts since September and after incumbent President Mohamed Waheed Hassan extended his term in office by six days, purportedly to avoid a constitutional void because the country is past the legal deadline to elect a new president.

Some voters told The Associated Press that they were running out of patience. ''We are fed up with politics. It has slowed our life. There is no business anymore,'' said Abdullah Abeedh, a 25-year-old photographer.

The Supreme Court annulled results of an election conducted Sept 7 because it found that the voters' registry contained fake names and those of dead people.

Police stopped a second attempt at holding the election because all the candidates had not accepted a new voters' list as the court mandated.

The court intervened again to change the runoff election date, which had been set for the day after the Nov 9 election. It also ordered Hassan to continue in office despite the official end of his term on Nov 11.

The European Union warned that the country might slip back to autocratic rule and said it is considering ''appropriate measures'' if Maldives fails to elect a new president Saturday.

It said further delays will be seen as attempts to prevent Maldivians from exercising their democratic rights.

US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said earlier this week that Hassan's decision to stay beyond his term endangered the people's right to elect a new leader and called for the election to be concluded soon.

Maldives has seen much upheaval in the five years since its first multiparty election. There has been conflict between the judiciary, Parliament and the presidency, which often worked in different directions. The judiciary and bureaucracy were often accused of being loyal to Gayoom, the former autocratic ruler.

Nasheed was elected in 2008 but resigned midway through his term last year after weeks of public protests and declining support from the military and police over his decision to detain a senior judge whom he perceived to be biased. He later said he was ousted in a coup but an inquiry commission rejected the allegation.

Maldives is a predominantly Muslim nation of 350,000 people. About 240,000 are eligible to vote Saturday.

Source: AP

Maldives president leaves country on eve of crucial polls

MALE – The president of the Maldives has left the country on the eve of national elections that have been delayed three times, his spokesman said Friday, leaving a leadership void amid a constitutional crisis.

Mohamed Waheed, who took office after a contested transfer of power last February, left for Hong Kong via Singapore on Thursday evening to accompany his wife to a medical appointment, spokesman Masood Imad said.

Presidential elections are to be held Saturday.

“I believe it was an appointment they had for some time that they deemed not necessary to postpone any more,” Imad said, noting Waheed’s wife was suffering an eye problem.

The married father-of-three, who as president commands the country’s armed forces, intended to return in a month and would in any case be stepping down as president after Saturday’s election, he added.

“He doesn’t have to be in Male. He is constantly in touch. There’s no reason for concern,” Imad added, saying that the legislature would be responsible for inaugurating a new leader Sunday.

Pressure has been mounting on the former U.N. official from Western nations and India, with the European Union warning of “appropriate measures” this week if the Indian Ocean islands failed to hold a free vote.

Under the terms of the constitution, Waheed’s term in office officially lapsed last weekend but he said he would remain in power to allow the selection of a replacement.

In a speech announcing his intention to step down on Saturday after 21 months in power, Waheed thanked the people of the Maldives but said his tenure had been “hard and stressful,” according to a statement Friday.

The tourism-dependent country has been gripped by protests and instability since February last year when the country’s first democratically elected president, Mohamed Nasheed, resigned.

He said he was forced out four years into his term by mutinous security officers acting on the orders of former autocrat Maumoon Abdul Gayoom and Waheed, then his vice president.

Both accused men denied the allegations.

A first round of presidential elections was held Sept. 7 that were won with 45 percent of the vote by Nasheed, a pro-democracy campaigner regularly imprisoned during the 30-year rule of Gayoom.

He faced a second-round run-off vote against the former leader’s half-brother, Abdulla Yameen, which was scuttled by the Supreme Court. The court upheld a complaint about vote list irregularities.

Two further scheduled elections announced by the Election Commission were prevented.

Nasheed, who has promised to bring the perpetrators of the “coup” against him to justice if elected, will face Yameen in Saturday’s run-off vote.

On Wednesday, the 53-member Commonwealth bloc expelled the Maldives from its disciplinary panel, which has begun investigating the political chaos that could ultimately lead to the country being expelled.

Waheed, who has criticized foreign countries for trying to interfere in the country, shrugged off the attentions of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) in an interview later that day.

“CMAG can decide what they want,” he told the local Haveeru newspaper.

Gayoom, speaking at a rally of parties opposed to Nasheed’s return to power, said Thursday that if his half-brother were elected, the Maldives would leave the Commonwealth. He also took aim at regional power India.

“We will maintain good neighborly relations with all countries, but will not allow them to interfere in our internal affairs, particularly in our domestic politics,” he was quoted as saying in a statement from the president’s office.

Source: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/11/15/asia-pacific/maldives-president-leaves-country-on-eve-of-crucial-polls/#.UoemB3B9uSo