New voters and voters who wish to vote from a location other than their home island must submit the NEW fingerprint re-registration form by 4:30pm Saturday October 12, in line with Thursday night’s Supreme Court ruling. People who re-registered prior to the Sept 7 election will need to complete the process again, or may be unable to vote. Fingerprint forms submitted on Oct 9-10 will still be valid.
Forms are available at all island council offices, Addu City Council departments, party offices, diplomatic missions and at www.elections.gov.mv. In Malé forms will be accepted at the Elections Commission’s registration center on Handhuvaree Hingun.
Check your registration by SMSing 1414 ‘VIS ID#’, call the hotline on the same number, or visit http://elections.gov.mv/index2715.html
The US has said it is “deeply concerned” about continued legal actions “that could further delay the Maldivian presidential election”.
The Supreme Court opened at midnight on Thursday in response to a petition from the Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM), and ordered the Elections Commission to redo the entire voter re-registration process, despite previously ordering polls to be held before October 20.
Earlier in same day the PPM had sought to file another petition to bar former President Mohamed Nasheed from the polls on the grounds of him being “irreligious” and critical of the judiciary, although this appeared to stall following dissent within the party.
“It is important that the [election] go forward unimpeded in a fair, inclusive and transparent way,” said Deputy Spokesperson for the US State Department, Marie Harf, in a statement.
“The basis of any democracy is for citizens to choose their government, for political differences to be decided at the ballot box in an environment free of violence and for election results to be respected,” the statement read.
“We continue to urge a peaceful political process that is inclusive of all candidates in order to ensure the Maldivian election that will meet international standards of an elected, legitimate democracy,” it concluded.
The statement followed UK Foreign Secretary William Hague’s urging of presidential candidates “to act in line with the interests of the people of Maldives”.
“It is imperative that there are no further delays and the elections be free, fair and inclusive, and that international observers are invited,” the Foreign Secretary said.
“Cynical attempt to delay election”: MDP
Nasheed’s Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) has meanwhile begun the task of re-registering tens of thousands of voters, in line with the Supreme Court order. Re-registration is required for new voters or people wishing to vote at a location other than their home island, with almost 65,000 people re-registering in the annulled first round – almost 30 percent of the voter turnout.
At the same time the MDP condemned Thursday’s ruling, warning that it risked further delaying the elections.
“The MDP is extremely concerned that the Supreme Court is interfering in the electoral process for political reasons, issuing unconstitutional rulings and acting with impunity,” said the MDP in a statement.
“The MDP fears that the PPM is seeking to delay the elections and also disenfranchise overseas and resort-based voters, who will now likely have to re-register and who tend to vote overwhelmingly in favour of President Nasheed,” the party stated.
“This is a cynical attempt by the PPM and the Supreme Court to prevent elections from taking place next week,” said the party’s spokesperson, MP Hamid Abdul Ghafoor.
“The PPM is running scared of the voters because they know they will lose a free and fair election., and the Supreme Court is facilitating the subversion of the democratic process.”
The party reaffirmed its confidence in the embattled Elections Commission, and called on security forces and the international community to ensure the Commission’s protection.
PPM MP Ahmed Nihan meanwhile told Minivan News last night that he believed the Supreme Court’s latest order would mean additional delays to the voting, currently scheduled for October 19.
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Elections will be held on 19 October!
The International Community should make sure that this happens otherwise it will the end of our young democracy!
This democrative curve ain't slumping just yet... and PPM are showing their true and increasingly desperate colours by the day. Those old tactics of bribery and coercion can only take you thus far. How oh how can they have not learnt to adapt with the times? Even if the elections are delayed till who knows when, the young seedlings of democracy have taken hold - and just like the bulk of the population of this country - alive and young and hungry to grow - they can only thrive. To resist that life impulse is perhaps understandable (although not acceptable) given how far gone the old guard are -delusional, believing in their own myths -but its ultimately futile.That thriving is the (far) bigger picture - and that what is unfolding - messy though it may be. To not see that is to live in denial- which is what far too many of us are perhaps still doing, maybe because of our collective fear of the unknown. But the courageous and not too few of us have taken the first step of freedom from fear - and there is no easy turning back.. the only real option is to embrace and channel the energy of this new phase with all the promise that it brings to a young, vital and largely intelligent population. Maldivians need to acknowledge the potential for greatness within them and just go with it. This then is just the first of many steps towards a brighter destiny. Despair and frustration as well as huge sacrifice are fellow companions but they cannot hold us back, no matter how bitter the backlash. The people who have inhabited these seemingly uninhabitable islands have endurance and tenacity in their quiet veins. They are not be underestimated - and unlike those who underestimate them -they do adapt to the times.There are a lot of savvy mothers of all ages on the march - they know that their sons and daughters have the chance of a better future - and if need be, they are putting their lives on the line for them. That is how convinced many people are today: they have glimpsed the vision on the other side. And they are slowly but surely moving towards it.We all are.
Democracy by the Supreme Court, for the Supreme Court and only with the Supreme Court. Supreme Court has declared war on the Election Commission and the MDP.
Supreme Court had implicitly declared that they do not care a damn for international observers and their verdicts.
Supreme Court is supreme, OK.
Mohamed Waheed led government became the first Maldivian government ever to express open hostility to India which is arguably the only country in the world that will go all out to help Maldives when the chips are down, and when we are in real trouble.
Maldivian Supreme Court is flexing its muscles as a political power in the Maldives and wants to subjugate the Election Commission to its design and will.
It is also deeply suspicious and hostile to the MDP.
Their is a plan. We are executing it with the help of Supreme Court . All started in June 2012. We just wanted to make sure Nasheed will be convicted and sentenced and simply disqualified to contest. It did not work because we were short of the support of one judge to have the majority. Even we were unable to comprehend why Judge Ali Hameed was not helping us with our plans in spite of the fact that we have his unconditional loyalty. Then we learnt about his secret which was used by MDP. So we just made sure we leaked it when we laid our hands on it and now he will be our puppet again and have the required majority. We used Reethi beach Naseem and Hulhumale' Ziyad to leak the tape.
Now our plans are on track. We shall put impediments on the road to elections at every turn Mr Fuad will find it impossible to conduct this election before 11th of November. On the 11 th November we shall get our arson party tote fire to few buildings in Male' and islands: especially to coutrts and police stations and put the blame on MDP. We shall declare emergency and cancel the elections indefinitely. Once our investigations are over in regard to arson attacks we shall get Police to produce a secret report and few anonymous eyewitnesses to confess that Nasheed ordered the attacks,
We will arrest Nasheed and we expect MDP youth to set against Judiciary,Police and Army personal and their properties. If they did not, it will done with the help of our teams. We shall arrest half of the Parlament members and obtain the parliament majority too. Once all in place we shall pass legislation a in Parliament barring Nasheed from contesting, safeguarding the interests of police commissioner. Defended minister and Pres waheed so they will be safe forever. Once Nasheed is out of the picture Maumoon shall contest in a new election against Qasim and election commission with the the new members after dismissing the present lot we will just squeeze Qasim's votes and once our purposes are served we shall destroy this irritant also for he is also a commoner like Nasheed.
We beyfulhus will rule this country and there will be no place in the throne for commoners like Nasheed and Qasim.
Just wait and see. We are not worried or scared at all as now we will do anything we want because Supreme Court is in our hands.
when thousands of votes being rigged by EC and MDP, and when the voters list were manipulated to suit to rig them by the notorious MDP members, there must be a way to stop repeating the same things that they have done on 7th .
Only the way to stop them doing it is to have the voters re-regsiteted with the finger print.
What's the point of going by the previous list after knowing that the list was consist of dead and under age people too.
Why MDP is not able to digest these changes and let this have a transparent policy.
The MDP were badly cheated in the first road by the bribery of Tameen and Gasim. Now it will be blatant corruption that will derail democracy.
Deeply concerned which means they won't do anything about the decision lol !
My optimistic side tends to agree more with ToxicT. I hope ToxicT is right.
However, I fear that Nadaal may be absolutely right, even though it is clear that he is trolling.
And Baaghee Nasheed, please provide evidence if any, towards your argument that the Elections Commission has committed fraud in the 7 September elections. Yes, there were dead people, yes there may have been underage children on the list, but those errors do not in anyway prove systematic fraud that can even remotely have a material impact on the outcome of the elections.
If Baaghee wants to prove it, he'll have to give us his 'secret police report'.
... which I doubt really exists.