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 Presidential election begins in Maldives |
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Add date:
10/08/2008
Publishing date:
10/08/2008
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MALE, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- The first-ever multi-party presidential election began Wednesday in the Indian Ocean archipelago of the Maldives as a lot of people lined up in the rain to chose their new president from six candidates.
The incumbent President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who has been the president since November 1978, will run for the presidency representing the Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (Maldivian People's Party).
Other candidates are Maldivian Democratic Party's Mohamed Nasheed, Islamic Democratic Party's Umar Naseer, Social Liberal Party's Ibrahim Ismail, Jumhooree Party's Qasim Ibrahim and independent candidate Hassan Saeed.
"The election is good for our Maldivians as we can choose our president from a lot of candidates," Sushan, a teacher from a government school who was waiting to cast her vote at Male's Aminiya School told Xinhua.
Aminiya School is one of the 395 polling stations across the country where about 209,000 people are eligible to vote from 9 a.m.to 9 p.m. local time (0400 GMT to 1600 GMT).
It was raining in Male, but a lot of people still came early and waited patiently in the long queue waiting for their turns.
"We are happy to see the democratic process is starting in the Maldives. Up to now we can see the organizing of the election is good and the voting is free," said German Ambassador to Sri Lankaand the Maldives Juergen Weerth, who arrived in Male from Colombo to observe the election.
However, Weerth said it's difficult to say whether the election will be a fair one as it's hard to know what happened before the voting in such a country grouping 1,192 islands across 800 km in the Indian Ocean.
The Elections Commission has assigned officials to polling stations to provide assistance to the voters.
Observers from other countries and local non-governmental organizations such as Transparency Maldives were also present in most of the voting centers.
Most expected no candidate to secure 50 percent of the vote initially, which would prompt a run-off round. The exact date has to be decided by parliament.
According to the new constitution ratified by Gayoom in August, the president shall be elected directly by the people and over 50 percent of the votes are needed to be elected.
If no candidate obtains such majority, a run-off election must be held within 21 days after the first election.
The counting will start immediately after the closing of the polling stations and the initial result is expected to be announced on Thursday.
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