Elections Commission (EC) President Fuwad Thowfeek, member Ali Mohamed Manik and Secretary General Asim Abdul Sattar have met with a group of young Maldivians who presented the commission with a memento to express gratitude for their repeated efforts to conduct a presidential election this year.
The poster, titled “1000 Thanks”, was a mosaic of photos of several hundred citizens holding messages of support for the EC.
Upon receiving the token of thanks, Thowfeek stated that the commission’s team “is very happy to know that we are not alone in this work, and that we have the support of so many people.”
“It is for you, for citizens, that we are tirelessly doing this work, without rest or sleep, and often without even time for proper meals. We are very thankful for this show of support and are further inspired to carry on doing all we can to ensure we can guarantee that the people of Maldives get to elect a leader through free and fair elections,” Thowfeek stated.
Thowfeek added that the gratitude shown by the people is deserved by the whole team at the EC, adding that this includes commission members, department heads, staff members and temporary staff members. He said that the complete team consists of about 4000 people.
“This means a lot to us, and we will cherish this sentiment of thanks. We will Do everything possible to honor the trust you have in us.”
#InFuadWeTrust
According to the team who presented the “1000 Thanks” poster to the EC, the campaign is an effort initiated by a group of persons on social media via twitter and facebook. All the photos in the mosaic were submitted via these mediums, or were taken by volunteers in various islands, including capital city Male’ and Addu City.
“The main objective of this effort is to show gratitude to the EC and Fuwad for his excellent leadership, holding the team together and going forward in the face of so many strong obstacles and threats. This is a gesture of thanks from us, the electorate, to the EC team for their tireless work to defend our right to vote,” said team member Ismail Zayan Shakeeb, a first time voter in the coming fresh round of elections.
“We are still getting photos via email, facebook and twitter. We wanted to hand this token to the EC prior to Saturday’s voting, and so have printed the nearly 500 submissions we have received in just under a week. Our social media channels are still open for submission though,” said an 18 year old female volunteer.
Participants in the campaign are seen holding a variety of messages, including “#InFuadWeTrust” – a twitter hashtag which has become popular during the recent attempts to hold elections, “Fuwad – finally a man to trust”, and “Fuwad is our Batman, our very own Dark Knight”.
Presidential Election: Attempt 4
The November 9 polls are the EC’s fourth attempt to hold presidential elections – with the first round held on September 7 later annulled by the Supreme Court.
“It is a difficult time for us, but we know that Maldivians have been waiting for and wanting an election for over two years. And we believe that it is our responsibility to provide a free, fair and independent election for our people,” Thowfeek said.
“We did everything we possibly can to do this, and the best election we have had was on the 7th of September. But then, for very unreasonable reasons, the Supreme Court has annulled these elections,” he stated.
“This election won’t be as good as we want it to be, which we could have done if we had gotten the time period allocated for elections in the constitution,” he stated.
“It looks like we will be having elections this Saturday.”
Back at work
Thowfeek was admitted to ADK late Wednesday night, and hospitalized till Thursday afternoon.
Soon after his release, he returned to the EC offices to join his team with preparations for Saturday’s election, insisting that he “feels much better now”.
“I had a chest pain, and my colleagues advised me to go see a doctor. The doctor did a very thorough check up and said there’s nothing to worry about. They kept me admitted in the hospital for about 16 hours. But the doctor said upon discharge that I can come back to work, and so here I am,” Thowfeek explained.
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The opponents of democracy see the EC as the biggest threat to them. It's the only institution in the country working to uphold the principles of democracy.
On the other hand, the Supreme Court, the police and the military have become weapons to dismantle the democratic framework that was so hard fought for.
Why? All he does is complain about reasonable bureaucratic requests asked of him by our courts in order to facilitate a free and fair election.
And we have had to postpone elections multiple times due to the frequency of registry errors that the EC failed to recognize, much to the chagrin of our courts, two of our presidential candidates and our military, who expect more diligence and professionalism from the EC in the future.
Mr. Thawfeeq must improve on his time management skills and the EC must be more thorough in the tasks entrusted to them before they are given our gratitude.
@Dhivehi Hanguraama
If you really believe that, then there is no hope and I suggest you fill your house lamps up with coconut oil and tighten your belts.
@ Dhivehi Hanguraama; I now make a point of reading everything you write. We have four main religions in Sri Lanka, and all have their fundamentalist nuts, but none to rival you!
All democracy proponents should be appreciated for their work. No doubt.
HOWEVER too much faith in democracy ALONE is destructive. Why? Because democracy is much more easy to manipulate.
Maldivivian thugs also PREFER democracy because they know institutions are not so solid and can be controlled in a small country.
Always support democracy but its a monster too, that needs to be handled well. Let the monster work for you, not destroy you.
who ever you are Dhivehi hanguraama go f--- your own a--
Thank you elections commission and Fuad.
Private Tourist on Thu, 7th Nov 2013 9:19 PM
"@Dhivehi Hanguraama If you really believe that, then there is no hope..."
Guys, do not let this troll ruin your reading of the otherwise sensible posts here. This guy is nothing but a troll and he himself doesn't believe a word of what he writes.
I've exposed him multiple times before. The last time was when he was on about Zina and how it cannot be verified by video etc (reference to Ali Hameed). I referred to his previous rantings about Ayatolla Khomeini and Khomeini's views on Zina and video evidence.
His comments were absolute proof that this guy talks out of his ar*e! In short, do not feed the troll.
@Demockery on Thu, 7th Nov 2013 10:49 PM
"Always support democracy but its a monster too, that needs to be handled well. Let the monster work for you, not destroy you."
This is very true. Democracy is far from perfect. In fact, it's only a half decent system, but that's the best human kind has ever come up with.
It can fail miserably, unless everything is kept in check. For example, in most so called democracies, including the rich and poor ones, the rich oligarchy do control the outcome of most things.
This is true in the United States, Europe and in places like India as well. In our infantile "democracy", we've seen how destructive that can be.
Various religions created their versions of democracy, but they only survived until the death of their founders. This is even true of our faith Islam. Islamic democracy passed away with the death of Prophet Mohammed (SAW).
Ahmed Bin Addu Bin Suvadheeb is Dr. (Br) Riza in London?
@Ahmed Bin Addu Bin Suvadheeb
Our beloved Prophet Mu'hamme (Peace be upon him) is not founder of Islam! He is last and final Messanger of ALLAH Almighty! And Islamic Shari'a is far more better than Democracy!
Thank you Fuwad Thowfeek and the amazing hard-working Elections Commission team.
No one should have to endure death threats, police entering your offices and meddling with computers, and last-minute political derails just for trying to do your jobs.
I hope everything goes smoothly tomorrow and that you can look forward to calm and enjoy a nice holiday quite soon.
@sam
Muslims are not happy in nations under islamic shari'a. No, they are oppressed, bombed, raped, state-raped. Even murdered, if they speak against the injustice of the filthy rich.
But muslims are happy in democratic, secular countries where even as immigrant citizens, they have rights equal to the native people. If they are raped, the police defend them. If they are used as slave labor, the judiciary fights to bring them justice.
Therefore, democratic secularism is better than your so-called, artificial 'islamic sharia'.