This article was first published on Dhivehi Sitee. Republished with permission.
On the evening of September 9, two days after Maldivians voted in the country’s second democratic elections in which Mohamed Nasheed emerged with a resounding victory, Gasim Ibrahim’s Jumhooree Coalition launched a series of rallies under the name ‘Rigged Vote! Rigged Vote!’. Together with its ally, the radical ‘religious’ Adhaalath Party, the Jumhooree Coalition has been claiming that at least 20,000 additional votes were cast on 7 September. This is the second in Dhivehi Sitee’s English translations of speeches at the ‘Rigged Vote! Rigged Vote’ launch rally. Today, extracts from the speech by leader of Jumhooree Party, Gasim Ibrahim:
Yes, we know without a doubt that the number of votes we got in the provisional results announced by the Elections Commission is not the amount of votes people gave us. I understand very clearly that more than 70,000 Maldivians voted for us. We will never forgive, never forgive, this major crime committed by the Elections Commission. Will never forgive, okay?
It is not 50,000 votes that I got from Maldivians. I know this because how were dead people voted for, those votes counted and included in the list? When there are such huge responsibilities to be assigned and when such big changes are made, I must say the people responsible must hurry to deliver the right. They must hurry. We don’t appoint people to positions so they can say this is a power in our hands and harass and badger.
I am saying it very clearly, we have no doubt that the High Court and the Supreme Court, too, will deliver us our right. Yes, in ‘critical moments’ like this, my appeal to the courts is to hurry up. See it as a right and give us a judgement fast. I have no doubt these courts will rule this way. That is, the courts will see this as a right and come to that decision fast. I don’t believe that at a time like this, when the entire peoples’ future rests and builds on this that such things should get stuck. I don’t believe that something like this should be open to influence or power from outsiders.
What I want to say is, the MNDF and or police and army of the national security force must give the protection they must give to our judges. Especially in a moment like this, when their protection and security is of such importance, I beg the president of the Maldives. I ask for the protection of those people [judges].
Yes, even in a short period of about eight hours, we have found about 800 dead people. We can check this out properly when we get the voters lists from the polling stations. We are certain that about 20,000 votes have been cast against the law and procedures. That is why the results show we have less votes than we got. I don’t know whether the votes we got have been rigged and moved from this side to that side.
What is certain is that it is not 50,000 votes that we got. I believe the result should have more than 70,000 votes. Those are people who joined us and supported us. These people are sobbing in all corners of the country, shedding tears of pain and crying: ‘this is not the reality, so many crimes have been committed. We saw people, dressed in a particular colour, closing up the cote boxes with shaking hands.”Yes, I am telling you about Laamu Atoll. A person monitoring near one of our vote boxes there told me s/he saw a person wearing a yellow shirt closing a box in this state.
We are leading. We are leading. When you minus that 90,000 votes [received by MDP], we are the leaders. Yes, when you subtract 20,000 from those 90,000, I believe it is us who are in the lead.
We know it is our vote that was changed. I am telling you what I believe. I am telling you what I believe. Maldivians, have courage. I am ready to make any sacrifice with my body and my money to bring you Maldivians a happy and prosperous life. We will not give in to anyone. This talk of me hospitalised for a heart attack — these are all blatant lies to dishearten you. This talk of me endorsing this person or endorsing that person. We will endorse when we have to endorse. But today we don’t have to endorse. There is nobody we will endorse. God willing, it is others who will have to endorse us. We don’t have to endorse anyone. We are not in such a position yet.
Even if you have to vote twice or thrice, I tell you, don’t hesitate. Do as we say. Like Imran said, we will tell you what the most right, most sincere decision is for the sake of this nation, this land. When we tell you this decision, I call on you to double the support you have for us and decide to work with us.
God willing, it will be Gasim Ibrahim who will be the President of the Maldives on 11 November. Allah willing, do not doubt this. I tell you, do not doubt this.
Ask Allah for strength. Pray to Allah. Get strength from Allah and pray. That then is how Allah will decide things. There is no other calculation than this [Allah’s]. What I am telling you is the Right. Even if some people are deceiving you, the Right will win, Allah willing. Allah has guaranteed victory for the Righteous. Reminding you of this will give you Maldivian citizens strength and good thinking. I am ending this with the prayer that God will give you the ability to think right.
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Translation: September 15’s secret police report on election- UK, EU praise “transparent and competitive” election, as High Court accepts JP case
- Jumhoree Party requests Supreme Court cancel second round of polls on Sunday
- Supreme Court declares current president will remain past November 11
- Supreme Court issues edict insisting all guidelines be followed
- MDP, PPM, JP host final campaign rallies amidst uncertainties of election day proceeding
That's precisely it.
God has willed it. God does not want Gasim. He has created the men and women who voted last Saturday. Gasim is out!!!
Yamin is also set to be out. God wills it.
Don't you get it, EVERYTHING is as god wills it. So, Anni gets elected because God willed it.
so sad...its seem gasim is going to be crazy now....
For some people its not God's will when the matter in questioned is decided other than from what they believe it to be.
In this case no success for MDP, God wills nothing good for MDP and everything for JP.
Gasim has clearly gone mad. Now he will bribe the Supreme Court to annul the election and declare him Sultan.
People around Gaasim are "felanee" Gaasim. Sad, he does not know it.
When Miss Universe, Lara Dutta visited Maldives, Gaasim said, "Thank you for tha La_lhaa. Every Maldivian know the meaning of this Hindi word!!!
“God Willing, Gasim will be President on November 11″
SO! There's TWO of them!
When even the God Almighty's name is brought to justify own misdeeds, you know that these people do not have a morality.
Would a God fearing person bribe the electorate with laptops and cash?
It used to happen a bit differently. History lesson 101:
(1) A very long time ago, even God had no say in who our boss man was. Some d*** heads and tw**s in Male ruled over us; we never even saw the b****ds.
(2) Then God had a hand in this business, and for 30 years, God was on the side of one man. We didn't have much to do with it even then.
(3) Finally, God willed us to elect our own boss. Times have changed. Now, God wills us to decide our own fate.
We are almost stunned to see that 50000 people have voted for a schizophrenic. 25% Maldivian voted such crazy person is beyond my comprehension. I suggest buruma to denounce your Allah if you don’t succeed in your crazy ambition to become the president. First it was to make a dream true and almost Buruma has spend all his fortune with the hope that with money and Allah with the help of Adaalath on his side he can win the election. But now this is the question of his faith and the fortune, both are now on a shaky ground. Fight for the last drop of his blood to save his only reason to live.
The question is why Buruma is so frenzy about presidency of Maldives risking his lifetime achievement?
May be the guy is already losing his sanity. He doesn’t seem he is up to for money. So what makes him so fanatic?
Mr.Burma Gasim, I simply pray that god does not will for you to become a maniac with delusions of grandeur
Is Gasim talking about the number of receipts he got from the people who were paid to vote for him? How else can be he so sure of 20,000 votes that are "missing"? Accounts not adding up eh. Poor Gasim, truly lost it this time. No wonder, with all the millions of dollars he spent on campaigning and vote purchasing. Shows that what Allah wills happens, not what money wills.
Very sad to see that Qasim is out of mind.Hey, Qasim you are not a fit person to do that job.Your Country People said that clearly. So give it up. Money cannot do everything. Do what you good for and help Maldives next President to make a better Maldives with the ideas you had in your Party manifesto. Be a Honorable person and Not a mad jackass.
Gasim sounds more like a lunatic from the mad house.The ranting of a sorry man who had gone crazy.
@mariyam on Tue, 17th Sep 2013 8:30 PM
"Is Gasim talking about the number of receipts he got from the people who were paid to vote for him? How else can be he so sure of 20,000 votes that are “missing”?"
Indeed, if Gasim is so confident that he actually won the first round, why doesn't he bring all those who voted for him and show them to us? Surely, if he is so popular, all those who voted for him won't hesitate to come forward and walk to the Courts to demand that their man be sworn in as President.
Instead of digging up the dead and showing them up on a voter registration list, a more productive approach will be the above. The dead on a voter registration list is a non-issue as even a primary school kid can figure out. Gasim or his achilles heel, Saeed has not been able to prove that any of those dead actually voted on polling day.
Perhaps, Gasim can see the dead and saw them milling around, voting for Nasheed. Well, that's even worse for Gasim, since you can't bribe the dead! They are already in heaven with rivers of wine, virgins and what not. Gasim can only offer cheap Chinese air-conditioners; not competitive at all.
Gasim must stand to lose everything judging by the way he is squealing....
All my respect to our god but if we, simple humans, are voting is because the choice of our leader in not in the hands of god who gave us the freedom and the right to make our own choices and to choose our president. If god would be in charge to vote, why are we spending hours to access the ballot, why do we have to tell what our hearth is telling us and why do you have to ask the court to take decisions instead of Allah? Allah is great - and politic gets dirty.
If my math is correct, taking 20,000 votes and giving it to Gasim from Nasheed's 95,224 would still leave him ahead.
Gasim would have 70,422 and Nasheed would have 75,244.
Go home Gasim you're drunk.
Yes if Raees Nasheed is elected to be president of the country its not God's will, but if Gayoom, Gasim and this lot is given power its the will of god.
Shameless whores who use religion to justify their political lust.
laa la laa la laa la laaa..hmmm hmmm hmm..
Gasim is going bokers...teaching mathematics from an honorary PHD...
He is paying the judges a hell of a lot of money to move it his way...and he is assuming the opppositions to run up against these fraudulent judges with XXX hobbies...
Simple enough... we never beleive what a liar says... because eventualy he will lie. likewise, decisions made by judges like hameed are for paperwork only.. and keep those decisions in black and white... we wont accept it...
Gasim is worried his business empire may get held down if anni becomes president...and that he may have to pay more taxes... Gasim, helping pple with money is your duty as the richest man in the country.. god knows how you became rich in just 10 years.. i been working 15 years...and am no where near your state... why? because i havent tried underground business or havent got investments from govt high rankers on basis of anonymity. so gasim, back off...you are just lucky this is not a time pple like us want to take to the streets.. we want peace and we will vote for anni on 28th...wake up to a new maldives on 29th
Sorry Gasim... you can never be our president!!..