Police in the
Maldives have forced the postponement of the re-run of the presidential poll,
declaring the vote illegal and blocking ballot papers from leaving the offices
of the Elections Commission.
The election had
been due to take place on Saturday, but “a new date for elections
will be informed later”, the independent Elections Commission said in a
statement.
The Indian Ocean
chain of islands has been in turmoil since February 2012 when former President
Mohamed Nasheed, who won the Maldives’ first free elections in 2008, was ousted
in disputed circumstances his supporters called a coup.
Elections
Commissioner Fuwad Thowfeek said police had surrounded the commission’s
secretariat.
“We cannot proceed
with the election if police are obstructing it,” Thowfeek told a news
conference. He said the commission was disappointed and frustrated and that
police had “overstepped their authority”.
Thowfeek also
doubted the election could be held before the end of the current presidential
term on November 11.
The Supreme Court
annulled the results of a September 7 presidential election in which
Nasheed came first and ordered a re-vote, agreeing with losing candidate Qasim
Ibrahim that the voters’ register listed fictional names and dead people.
Police spokesman
Abdulla Nawaz told Breeze Magazine that they considered it was illegal to stage
the election in violation of a Supreme Court order that required all candidates
to approve electoral lists.
Only Nasheed has
approved the list. Ibrahim and Yaamin Abdul Gayoom, a brother of the country’s
long-time autocratic leader Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, have not signed them.
“Only one
candidate had signed the voter register and therefore it would have been a
violation of the Supreme Court guidelines for the election to
go ahead,” the police spokesman said.
‘Political
motive’
Abdulla Sodig, mayor
of Addu City, told Breeze Magazine that it was clear there were no technical
issues and there was only a political motive behind the move by the police.
“Since the coup
last year the police [has been] controlling the whole country… they are all trying
to continue the coup government,” he said.
Nasheed, who said he
was forced to step down last year at gunpoint by police and army officers, fell
five percentage points short of an outright majority win in the first round.
He was set for a
runoff with Gayoom when the Supreme Court annulled the election, which was
hailed by the United Nations, United States, India and Commonwealth observers
as largely free and fair.
After Saturday’s
election was called off, Hamid Abdul Ghafoor, a spokesman for Nasheed, accused
the judiciary and police of being the pawns of Gayoom and called for
international engagement to have an election soon.
Others also decried
the cancelled vote.
“This clearly
undermines the democracy and violates the people’s right to vote,” said
Mohamed Visham, editor of local daily Haveeru.
But he added that
the election setbacks would not discourage Maldivians from believing in
democracy.
“All hope is not lost.
There is still time to have an election before November 11,” he said,
referring to the date when President Mohamed Waheed Hassan’s term ends.
