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JP, PPM fail to agree on contesting election with single candidate

Jumhoree Party (JP) presidential candidate MP Gasim Ibrahim will individually contest the election rerun scheduled for Saturday (October 19), after failing to agree terms with his rivals on uniting behind a single candidate against the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP).

JP Policy Secretary Mohamed Ajmal confirmed that talks between Gasim and fellow candidates President Dr Mohamed Waheed and MP Abdulla Yameen of the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) had failed to result in an agreement to form an election coalition.

President Waheed announced Friday (October 11) that he would be withdrawing from the election rerun set for October 19, after polls held last month were annulled by the Supreme Court.

Waheed, who came in last place during the now defunct first round of polling on September 7 with 5.13 percent of the popular vote, said he had taken his decision in the “greater interest”of the Maldives, citing concerns about the integrity of the independent Elections Commission (EC).

The election, which saw an 88 percent voter turnout, was unanimously considered credible and democratic by more than 1000 local and international election observers.

Local media has meanwhile quoted the president as saying he would not back back any particular candidate ahead of the vote, despite previously pledging support to the PPM ahead of the cancelled run-off vote that was to be held on September 28.

President’s Office Media Secretary Masood Imad said he could not officially confirm the president’s stance on not backing a candidate at time of press.

The decision means that just three candidates will contest Saturday’s poll; MDP candidate former President Mohamed Nasheed, Abdulla Yameen of the PPM and Gasim Ibrahim of the JP.

Ajmal said that with Dr Waheed, Yameen and Gasim failing to agree on terms for fielding a single candidate to stand against Nasheed, the JP’s candidate would contest the polls individually along with his running mate Dr Hassan Saeed, as he had during the vote on September 7.

Speaking during a press conference yesterday (September 12), Gasim accused the PPM of being the main obstacle in agreeing to back President Waheed as a single candidate against Nasheed.

“I said the others must choose that path as well. Then it will be President Waheed who will contest elections. [I asked for that] because that is the path for success. However that did not happen. I myself told PPM’s President, [former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom] that I was ready to do that,” he told local media during the press conference.

“When I had proposed this, PPM cannot lie and say [we] did not agree to a single candidate. Politics is dirty, but it shouldn’t be this dirty.”

PPM presidential candidate Yameen has meanwhile told newspaper Haveeru he did not believe the party would receive a sufficient number of votes by uniting behind Waheed. He raised an additional concern, that the incumbent’s running mate during the September 7 vote was Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) Leader Ahmed Thasmeen Ali, adding that it was against the law to change a choice of running mate.

Thasmeen and his party have since pledged support for the MDP during the election.

“We cannot see a way to lawfully change the running mate. There is no way to change Thasmeen as Waheed’s running mate. So even in this sense, from a legal point of view, President Waheed is not a choice,” Yameen was quoted as saying.

The PPM presidential candidate was not responding to calls at time of press.

Cancelled vote

Gasim narrowly finished in third place during last month’s cancelled vote, taking 24.07 percent of ballots cast, with Yameen receiving 25.35 percent of the votes cast.

MDP candidate former President Mohamed Nasheed finished as front runner in the poll, securing 45.45 percent of the popular vote. However, he fell short of the 50 percent ‘plus one vote’ needed to secure the presidency during the first round.

Despite both local and international observers praising the September 7 poll and the conduct of the Maldives’ EC, the Supreme Court ultimately backed concerns raised by the JP over alleged voter irregularities and ordered a rerun of last month’s poll in its entirety.

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India calls for free, fair, inclusive and credible election, and a smooth transition of power

The government of India in a statement released on Thursday called on all Maldivian stakeholders to work towards holding a “free, fair, inclusive and credible election in a peaceful environment followed by a smooth transition on November 11”.

“As a close friend and neighbour, India has consistently supported the strengthening of democratic processes and institutions in Maldives. We believe that it is important that the stalled electoral process is put back on track,” the statement read.

“India strongly urges that the fresh elections dates stipulated in the verdict are adhered to so that a new President is elected in accordance with the wishes and democratic aspirations of the people of Maldives,” the statement added.

The statement comes at a time when the Elections Commission (EC) is preparing to hold the presidential election on October 19, after the previous election held on September 7 was annulled by the Supreme Court citing discrepancies in the poll.

Supreme Court judgement and its complications

The court ruled the election had lacked legitimacy, as there were 5,623 irregularities in the voter registry. The secret report was not shown to the Elections Commission’s legal team.

The judgement also laid down a “guideline” consisting of 16 points which the court claimed were necessary to be followed by the Elections Commission to ensure a free and fair, credible elections. These included a provision stating that re-registration form should only be accepted if it had the name, address, identity card number and fingerprint of the person requesting re-registration, the person submitting the form as well as [the same information of] two witnesses.

However, in a later order by the Supreme Court last Friday, the Elections Commission was ordered to restart the process of compiling the voter registry for those individuals who wished to vote in a location other than their place of domicile, disregarding previous re-registration.

This led the Elections Commission and political parties to begin a last minute re-registration drive to ensure all voters who wished to vote in a different island than their island of permanent residence were able to do so. Unless re-registered, these voters will now not get the opportunity to cast their ballot.

The Elections Commission has meanwhile said that it expects at least a minimum 60,000 people to have registered within the short time period. The commission has also said that it has been working round the clock to ensure the elections happen as according to the schedule given by the Supreme Court.

The ruling to annul the first round also contradicted the positive assessments of more than a thousand local and international election observers.

No legal void even if no presidential elect is determined by November 11: Supreme Court

Meanwhile India’s latest statement notes that it is important to follow the deadlines set forth in the constitution and the law.

“We deplore the recent incidents of political violence and appeal to all sides to maintain peace and calm and to refrain from extra-constitutional measures,” read the statement.

“We encourage all concerned in Maldives to work for free, fair, inclusive and credible elections in a peaceful environment followed by a smooth transition on 11 November 2013, as stipulated by the Constitution of Maldives.

In this regard, we welcome the statement issued by the Maldives’ President condemning efforts to stop former President Mohamed Nasheed from running for office of President of Maldives,” the statement added.

However, the Supreme Court’s judgement now means that even if a new president was unable to be sworn in on conclusion of the presidential term on November 11, the “principle of continuity of legitimate government would override any repercussions faced by failure to adhere to constitutional deadlines.”

India in its statement also assured that its commitment to work with the Government of Maldives and its state institutions for success of elections.

The Indian statement also coincided with a similar statement by the United Kingdom.

The UK Foreign Secretary, William Hague stated that “It is imperative that there are no further delays and the elections are free, fair and inclusive, and that international observers are invited.”

“It is important now that the democratic process proceeds in accordance with the Constitution,” Hague stated, calling on presidential candidates to respect the democratic process “and create conditions for free, fair elections.”

Meanwhile an early day motion was tabled in the UK Parliament calling upon the House of Commons to support the UN secretary general’s call for a “credible and peaceful second round of voting” in the Maldives.

The motion, sponsored by MP Grahame Morris, also called upon members of the House of Commons to declare that it “condemns those who are seeking to prevent President Mohamed Nasheed from participating in any future elections in the Maldives; further condemns the perpetrators of the arson attack that destroyed the opposition-supporting Raaje TV station in Male’; and demands that the authorities take all necessary steps to bring the perpetrators to justice.”

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Translation: September 15’s secret police report on election

This translation first appeared on Dhivehi Sitee. Republished with permission.

Shortly before midnight on 7 October 2013, four of the seven judges on the Maldives Supreme Court Bench put out a majority verdict annulling the first round of the 2013 Presidential Election held on 7 September 2013. The election was heralded as free, fair and largely free of errors by both local and international observers. The four judges ignored this consensus and, instead, chose to rely heavily on a ‘secret report’ compiled by a team of ‘forensic experts’ from the Maldives Police Service as the main evidence to support claims of Jumhooree Party, the complainant in the case. The report was so secret that it was not shared even with lawyers of the defendant, the Elections Commission, depriving them of the essential undeniable right of reply.

The following is a translation of another secret report the so-called expert forensic team compiled on 15 September 2013, the same day the Jumhooree Party filed its case at the Supreme Court. It was leaked on the internet yesterday. Although it is not the secret report which the Supreme Court ordered from the police after the case began, it is among the documents the court considered, and gives a taste of the quality of the greater report these experts later prepared. Hopefully, this latter report will also be soon made available for public perusal by a concerned citizen, as it should rightly be.

Read original (Dhivehi)

***************************************

Maldives Police Service,

Male’

Maldives

J2 (A)/2013/926

Issues noted in the Eligible Voters Registry used in first round of the presidential election & other problems with the election

Introduction

This report is [to] verify whether or not the allegations being made by political parties and political figures about validity of the results of the presidential election held on 7 September 2013 have any provable basis. Thus, this report compares and includes discrepancies noted in: the ‘Presidential Election 2013 — Eligible Voters List’ published by the Elections Commission on 30 May 2013 in the Government Gazette Vol.42, No.94 and “Amendments made to the Presidential Election 2013 Eligible Voters List published in Government Gazette on 30 May 2013 based on complaints received” that appeared in Government Gazette Vol.42, No.101 of 29 June 2013, and citizen information records kept at the Department of National Registration.

This report is based on multiple comparisons of a large number of records. Moreover, as the Elections Commissions has not even up to this day made public any list or registry of those of who voted in the presidential election on 7 September 2013, any discrepancies in the lists or registries used in the activity will enter this report also. However, it is believed that such an error-margin will be extremely slim. As this report regards the Department of National Registration Database as its main source, any incorrect information in it would also naturally enter this report. If the Elections Commission omitted listing the district when entering someone’s address, this report does not consider it as a problem or a discrepancy in address. Nor does it consider variations in spelling a person’s name as a discrepancy.

Points of Note:

In examining the Eligible Voters List, or Voter, and the records received from the Live Link of the Department of National Registration, several discrepancies were noted. They are listed below:

1865 people who were not given ID cards by the Department of National Registration were included in the Elections Commission’s Voter Registry. Information regarding those persons is included in Annex 01 of this Report

07 people whose information is not found in the Department of National Registration records were included in the Voter Registry. This information is included in Annex 02 of this report. One of these persons has made a Maldivian Passport.

588 who are believed to be now dead are included in the Elections Commission Registry. These dead people’s information is in Annex 03.

39 children who, according to the Department of National Registration Database, were not 18 years of age by 7 September 2013 were included (by modifying their date of birth) in the Elections Commission Registry. Annex 04 contains information on the children whose dates of birth are believed to have been altered.

Voter Registry shows 22 records of people who were on two ID card numbers. Annex 05 contains details of such people.

3568 people were noted whose Date of Birth on the Elections Commission Registry was different from that on their ID cards. Such persons are listed in Annex 06.

1627 people were noted as having discrepancies in their names. Their details are in Annex 07

10020 people’s records were found whose address on the National Registration Database did not match with their address in the Elections Commissions Registry. Their details are in Annex 08

747 people were found whose male female sex did not match[sic]. Their details are included in Annex 09. It is believed that the following problems arose as a result of mismatched sex:

According to the Registry gazetted by the Elections Commission a total of 5 women were registered to vote in Z.43.1.1 Lux Resort. It can be seen from the results announced on the Elections Commission website that 6 women voted in this box. Therefore, it must be believed that 1 woman more than was registered voted here.
502 women were registered to vote in Ballot Box No. NT.0.2 for Thaa Atoll in Male’. Results published on the Elections Commission website shows that 517 women voted in this box. Therefore, it is known that 15 women more than were registered voted here.
79 men were registered to vote in Box No.Z.50.1.1 placed on Robinson Club Maldives Resort. It is known from the results published on the Elections Commission website that 81 men voted here. Therefore, it is known that 2 men more than were registered voted here.
1 woman was registered to vote in Box No. Z.51.1.1 placed on Jumeirah Dhevanfushi Resort. It is known from the results published on the Elections Commission website that 2 women voted in this box. Therefore, 1 woman more than was registered voted in this box.

But, no votes were cast in these boxes more than the total numbers registered to vote there. Problems in votes cast in these boxes can be found in Annex 10. Detailed information about these will be found in Annex 10.

Below is a graph based on information listed above including the total number of problems found:

Problems that could arise with reference to points noted above:

In considering what has been noted in the Voter Registry, it is seen that there is some opportunity for fraud and rigging. Whether the problems in the Registry are intentional or otherwise, there is ample room to form the view that this could create opportunity for some people to vote illegally. Although the issues noted cannot be confirmed without first verifying them against the list checked at the polling booths, it must be accepted that even children under the age of 18 were allowed to vote. There is also room to say that people without a national identity card had the opportunity to create a card that is not valid and use it to vote. The view can also be formed that since there were 02 ID card numbers, one person could have had the opportunity to vote 02 times.

Other points of note:

Even though the Elections Commission acted according to Article 9 (a) of the General Elections Act which requires it to publish the Eligible Voters Registry in the Government Gazette at least 45 days (forty five days) prior to the election, it cannot be seen that the Commission published the information on their website as required. And, while second round of the 2013 Presidential Election is scheduled for 28 September 2013, the information still does not appear on the Elections Commission website.

Information has been received that Retired Judge Johan Griegler [sic] sent to the Maldives by the UN on request of the Elections Commission has not been given the opportunity to work there. Information has also been received that UN made a plea at the National Complaints Bureau to use his expertise. But, information has been received that he was not given the opportunity to work there that day.

It was also noted that even though Intelligence received information that the Elections Commission’s web server was hacked a few days before the election, and this information was relayed to the Commission, nothing was done about this for days. Even though it cannot be said for certain that information that could be ‘compromised’ was released as a result of hacked web server, it is believed that the server does contain such information. And, given that remote access has been granted to the server, it is certain that anyone who knows the password of that server will be able to access it from anywhere in the world. It was also discovered that it is this server which fetches the information and graphs needed for the Elections Commission website.

Because there is no one to take responsibility for the IT Department of the Elections Commission, that work has been assigned to Aminth Majda responsible for voter registration. That person works as Assistant Director of voter registration. Since most of the problems with this election is related to technology and registration, it is necessary for those investigating this to have information that it is one person responsible for these two things.

Although it was announced that arrangements were made for Indian citizens working in the Elections Commission to be absent from office on that day, information has been received that they were inside the premises on that day.

It was noted that, although percentage of voters was connected through net books assigned to those boxes through a web service, the link was broken at 15:00 on 7 September 2013 and could not be updated. Some people say that it was 71% of eligible voters who had voted at this stage. Information has also been received that, to ensure as many people as possible could vote in relation to this problem President of the Elections Commission Fuad Thowfeeq met with leaders of Jumhooree Party at 15:45 of that day. [The sentence structure is the Forensic Experts’, not mine.] And, the figure remained unchanged as voting continued until it showed a voter turnout of 88% at dawn. 2008 was a year when a lot of people voted, wanting a change. In comparison, unlike that time, various poll results showed that there were a large number of undecided voters. Even in the second round of the 2008 presidential election when citizens wanted a change, the voter turnout was 86%. Therefore, questions can be raised that there would be an 88% turnout this time.

While only one candidate, No.1 Qasim Ibrahim had a photo beside their name in the ballot papers used in the presidential election this time, some voters in Addu City saw ballot papers with photos of all candidates. In this regard, 4 people from Addu City have said they received this kind of ballot paper for voting.

Before the election, a person who played a lead role for a political party’s canpaign [sic] in Haa Dhaal Kulhudhuffushi printed some ballot papers similar to those used in this presidential election. This person and someone else were arrested in relation to this, and are being investigated.

Intelligence received reports sometime in the middle of this year that some people had got some ID cards printed abroad and were going to use it to voter registry using these cards, and investigations began to check the extent of truth in this information. Details about dead people were gathered through notes sent to various councils, and Intelligence began checking if any dead person had been included in the voter registry. But this work had to be brought to a halt temporarily because political actors and councils did not extend much co-operation to this work, Voter Registry was made public, media sources raised questions about this action by the police, and because of the extra work related to security of the election.

Some people are saying that when some people went to the voting stations to vote votes had already been cast in their names.

Proposals:

It is proposed that since investigations so far reveal problems with the Voter Registry, the Voters Lists used at polling stations on that day must be made public.
It is important that an audit be conducted of the server connected to the laptops at the polling booth, the server used in this work, and the system where the Voter Registry is kept.
Because some people are saying that when they arrived at the polling booth votes had already been cast in their names, this information must be collected. It is also the view that file information on how the records were updated on netbooks used must be checked, and how polling duty was changed must also be checked.
Given that the above noted problems can create more problems in the second round and could result in loss of peace, and given that even the work done up to now reveals a lot of problems that should not, relatively, exist in the voter registry, and because this creates the room for various parties to create doubts over the current preparations being done by the Elections Commission, and to ensure that people’s trust in elections preparations are upheld, and to seek public confidence in the results of the presidential election, it is the view that validity of the election must be proved to the public even if through government intervention.
When the points above are considered, there are problems that can affect the results of this presidential election. Therefore, it is the view that re-counting the vote boxes a second time will erase the doubts about the election in people’s hearts and reduce potential unrest related to this.
It is the view that because different people are saying that they saw different kinds of ballot papers, the ballot papers must be checked even if through random sampling.
It is proposed that in the future arrangements should be made to prevent foreign technicians from having access inside the Elections Commission. It is also proposed that, in circumstances where foreign technicians and experts are necessary, this information should be given to the public before people raise questions about something like that.
It cannot be accepted that registering voters through political parties is the best thing to do in the infancy of the Maldivian democracy. Therefore, it is the view that arrangements must be made so that everything to do with voter registration is done by the Elections Commission, and mechanisms established for easy registration.
This election has revealed the importance of recruiting staff to work at the polling stations well ahead of time so that it is assured such people are not affiliated with any political party.
It is the view that, to give people certainty and confidence, a security future [sic] be included in the ballot paper when they are being prepared. In circumstances where such a future [sic] is not included, and if a vote-related problem later arises where it has to be checked, then, if the only security futures [sic] it possesses are only futures [sic] that can be checked via a machine, it will be very time consuming and contains the potential for technical problems. It is the view, therefore, that some security futures [sic] visible to the naked eye be included in the ballot papers used in the election.

15 September 2013

Directorate of Intelligence

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2014 budget should be decided after election, says former finance minister

Former Finance Minister Ahmed Inaz has questioned the timing of a decision to present cabinet with the projected 2014 state budget less than 10 days before the scheduled re-run of the presidential election.

With the constitution requiring a new president be sworn into office by November 11, 2013, Inaz has told Minivan News that the budget should be decided by a democratically elected government immediately following the election, rather than by the outgoing administration of President Dr Mohamed Waheed.

The claims were made after the Supreme Court last month suspended the run off vote between Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) candidate Mohamed Nasheed and Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) rival MP Abdulla Yameen that had been scheduled for September 28.

The country’s apex court later annulled the first round, ruling that 5,600 ineligible votes had been cast.

With a re-scheduled poll just under a week away, the President’s Office has announced that Finance Minister Abdulla Jihad had presented the projected 2014 budget to the cabinet on October 8.

Whilst Jihad was not responding to requests for information, local media – citing unnamed Finance Ministry sources – have reported that the proposed budget is expected to total MVR16.5 billion.

The project spending plan come as the Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) warned in its latest Quarterly Economic Bulletin that government finances have “further deteriorated in the first six months of 2013” due to a sizeable shortfall in expected revenue coupled with a marked increase in recurrent expenditure.

The economic bulletin revealed that the total government expenditure of MVR6.7 billion (US$435 million) in the first half of 2013 was 8 percent higher than the same period in 2012.

The growth of government spending was “entirely due to the 21 percent (MVR965.3 million) growth in recurrent expenditure, which was partly oﬀset by the 26 percent (MVR440.6 million) decline in capital expenditure during the period”, the report stated.

While the present government had previously anticipated the need for for a supplementary budget after state offices were found to have exhausted their entire annual recurrent expenditure for 2013 by April, the Finance Ministry has instead relied on short-term treasury bills (T-bills) to carry over its debts.

Former Finance Minister Inaz said the present government’s reliance on the sale of T-bills was only delaying moves to address the problems with state spending, while ensuring the cost of lending for both public and private enterprise goes up.

Inaz argued that it should be for the newly elected administration to outline how state spending would be handled to find an “agreeable solution” backed by parliament.

“What I mean by agreeable solution is that in the current political climate, I do not believe there will be a clear parliament majority, so we must learn to talk [between political parties],” he said.

“If we delay, this will only prolong the deficit and kill the tax system completely.”

Long term co-operation needed

The former minister said that during the administration of former President Nasheed – under which he himself served – there had been “reluctance” to talk with the country’s opposition.

He added that the same opposition had for their part worked to try and stymie financial measures such as proposed tax reforms that he said had nonetheless been partially introduced by the MDP in the form of the Tourism Goods and Services Tax (T-GST) and general GST.

Having spoken with the current presidential candidates, Inaz argued that there was a shared interest in finding a solution to current concerns over the size of the country’s budget deficit, but argued against what he called the short and medium-term revenue raising measures previously suggested by the current government.

“It will take long-term strategies rather than looking for short-term solutions to try and increase revenue. We must push more cash into the economy and take less money from banks,” he said.

“We cannot increase taxes much more at present, so I believe the smartest way forward would be on focusing to increase productivity. For instance, the revenues in 2011 [from taxation] were way above what we had expected at the time.”

While Inaz said he backed greater efficiency within the civil service and private sector as a key means of boosting revenue, he claimed that significant cuts to recurrent expenditure was not realistic at present.

He took the example of the previous MDP government’s attempts to reduce state wage bills, which he said had required redundancy packages that would not be affordable in the current financial climate.

However, Inaz claimed that any potential government should instead consider freezing current civil service numbers and not hiring any more public sector workers unless a vacancy arose, something he claimed had again been started by the MDP in 2012 before the controversial change in government in early February of the same year.

Former Economic Development Minister Mahmood Razee – another significant figure in the former MDP government – said that it was vital that parliament agree to implement a complete and comprehensive reform of the current taxation system.

Razee argued that the previous government had predicted that once its tax reform plans had been fully implemented to include measures such as income tax, there would not be any need to increase taxes like GST and T-GST as the Majlis previously had this year.

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Supreme Court majority judges “do not know what they are doing”: Nasheed

The opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) has conducted a counter-assessment of figures highlighted as electoral fraud in the Supreme Court’s verdict annulling the results of the February 7 poll.

The Supreme Court in its controversial judgement issued last week based its findings on a secret police report compiled by the court itself, with the assistance of police from the Forensic Directorate Department. The court ruled the election had lacked legitimacy, as there were 5,623 irregularities in the voter registry. The secret report was not shown to the Elections Commission’s legal team.

Former President Nasheed – who finished the September 7 poll on top with 45.45 percent of the popular vote – told the press on Saturday that the party’s legal team had only noted 242 instances of possible fraudulent votes in the Supreme Court’s majority ruling, and 473 instances of potentially fraudulent votes in the dissenting view given by both Chief Justice Ahmed Faiz Hussain and Judge Abdulla Areef.

Nasheed argued that neither of these figures would have made any impact on the outcome of the presidential poll.

The final results of the poll held on September 7 showed Nasheed securing 95,224 votes. The Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) fielding Maldives former Dictator Maumoon Abdul Gayoom’s half brother, Abdulla Yameen finishedin second position with 53,099 votes, 25.35 percent of the popular vote. Jumhoree Party (JP) finished at third position with 50,422 votes – 24.07 percent of the vote – while incumbent President Mohamed Waheed Hassan finished at the bottom with just 5.13 percent of the vote or 10,750 votes.

The former President stated that while the margin between the candidates who finished third and second place of the race stood at 2,677 votes, adding either of the figures to the total number of votes obtained by Gasim Ibrahim would not have changed the outcome.

Analysis of the figures

At a press conference today, the MDP emphasised that irregularities on the voter registry such as incorrect address details did not prove or correspond to an instance of a fraudulent vote.

The party tallied the instances of fraud which were explicitly noted in the rulings, and stated this figure was a fraction of the number needed to influence the outcome.

According to the majority ruling, seven underage voters had cast their ballot in the poll while the dissenting view by Chief Justice Faiz and Judge Areef noted 12 underage voters as having cast their ballots.

The majority ruling highlighted 18 supposedly deceased people who cast their vote in the poll, while the dissenting view claimed 14 dead people had cast their ballots.

Regarding the repetition of names in the voter list, the majority ruling highlighted that 225 entries in the list as repeated. However, the dissenting view by the two judges stated 174 entries were repeated in the voter list, while 22 entries were found to have been repeated when compared to the Department of National Registration (DNR)’s database.

The majority ruling noted that seven people without records in the DNR database had voted in the poll, while the dissenting view noted 207 such people had voted in the poll, out of which 96 had voted under National Identification Card (NIC) numbers that did not match with the number in the voter list.

Both the rulings noted that seven people were given the right to cast their vote, even when their names had not been present in the voting list, after their names were added to the list in handwriting.

“No legitimate, internationally acceptable grounds to annul the poll”

Nasheed said while the Supreme Court had no legitimate or internationally acceptable grounds to annul the poll, the party would still work with the Elections Commission’s decision and was preparing for a fresh election to be held on October 19.

“Even if we get a chance as small as that of the eye of a needle to compete in a presidential election, we are going to win it swiftly. Our opponents have admitted it. They simply cannot win over us through a vote of the people,” Nasheed said.

The former president criticised the election guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court, which he described as the effective creation of new legislation made by the court. The mandate given by the constitution to the Supreme Court was to interpret laws, not to make new ones, he said.

“We have an elected parliament that is mandated to draft legislation. It is completely normal for Supreme Court to declare a part of this legislation illegitimate. But these guidelines, regardless of the name, are new legislation that instructs a state institution to follow a specific procedure. That is creating a law. They do not have that authority,” Nasheed stressed.

Nasheed said when the Supreme Court issued an order, this was required to be in pursuant to the law or the constitution, and if this was not the case, no institution was necessitated to follow those orders.

He also criticised the Supreme Court’s October 10 midnight ruling ordering the Elections Commission to compile a new voter registry, only days after releasing a judgement that ordered it to just amend the errors in the re-registration process.

“I think what is really happening here is that these four judges do not know what they are doing. I don’t think they are doing this purposely. As you know, these four have acquired very strange forms of degrees and maybe it is just that they do not have a clue about what they are doing,” Nasheed suggested.

“The current actions of the Supreme Court have now become acts carried out against the state. These four judges have become a threat to our national security. I call upon the security services to act immediately,” Nasheed said.

He expressed confidence that his political opponents would not succeed in their attempts to invalidate his candidacy, repeatedly claiming that this was “impossible”.

“People will not be surprised by attempts to bar me from contesting. I think the issue about candidacy is no longer newsworthy,” Nasheed said, when the question regarding his candidacy was asked.

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Supreme Court issues ruling allowing reporting tools into polling stations

The Supreme Court has issued a new ruling Saturday (October 12) allowing reporters and observers to carry “necessary items to perform professional duties” into polling stations.

The ruling follows a media outcry over the apex court’s prohibition on carrying any item except a pen into polling stations, stipulated in its 16 point guidelines for the holding of new presidential elections on October 19. The Supreme Court annulled the first round of polls held on September 7, following a petition by the third-placed candidate, Gasim Ibrahim.

The latest statement, signed by Chief Justice Ahmed Faiz, read: “[The Supreme Court] orders there not be any obstruction from any party to journalists and observers from using necessary objects to carry out their professional duties.”

“The purpose of the Supreme Court guidelines was to ensure elections proceed free and fairly [without intimidation, aggression, undue influence or corruption], not to impede professional duties of journalists and observers who act within the law,” the ruling read.

The Elections Commission welcomed the Supreme Court’s ruling at a press conference on Saturday night, stating that the media will now be allowed to carry cameras and observers will be allowed to carry items necessary to monitor the election.

Elections Commissioner Fuwad Thowfeek said the commission was working around the clock to abide by the Supreme Court guidelines and ensure elections took place within the 12 day time-frame the Supreme Court had given to hold elections.

A midnight ruling from the Supreme Court on October 10 ordered the commission to disregard re-registration efforts for the annulled presidential elections, and restart the entire process with fingerprinted forms for all voters who wish to vote in a location other than their permanent address.

However, despite requiring fingerprinted forms, the Elections Commission said it did not have the capacity to verify if the forms carried the correct fingerprints.

“The Supreme Court verdict does not say we have to verify [fingerprints]. We don’t have the capacity to do that. No institution does. But if we notice a problem, we can take those particular forms to the police for investigation,” Elections Commission member Ali Mohamed Manik said.

The 24-hour period for re-registration expired at 4:30 pm today. Manik said the commission had re-registered 10,340 people by 7:30 pm, but expected to process over 60,000 forms by Sunday evening. 65,000 people re-registered to vote ahead of the annulled September 7 poll.

Manik said over 3000 re-registration tokens required processing at 7:30 pm, but said the commission would honor all tokens. Ten forms can be submitted on every token, but political parties are allowed to submit any number of forms on tokens.

“Some political parties have bundles of 10,000 to 15,000 forms,” Manik said. The Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) said it had prepared over 33,000 forms.

Once the re-registration process is completed the voter registry will be publicised, and three representatives from each presidential candidate will be asked to approve voter lists for every single ballot box, Manik said.

The voter registry is expected to be ready by October 14, Monday, he added.

The Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM) had criticised the EC’s 24 hour re-registration window as an act to “ridicule” the Supreme Court guidelines.

In response Thowfeek said: “We are not ridiculing anyone. We are working 24-hours to abide by the Supreme Court guidelines. No matter what time you come, whether its 12:00am, 1:00am, 2:00am, you will see everyone here is hard at work, they are staying up.”

The Elections Commission will be holding information sessions for media and observers on Sunday and Monday. The names of officials who will be acting on behalf of the elections commission on polling day will be sent ahead of the election for vetting to presidential candidates as per point eight of the Supreme Court guidelines, Thowfeek said.

Point eight states that all officials must be appointed with the knowledge of candidates or their representatives to ensure that all officials in voting districts are safe from allegations of supporting or representing a particular political ideology or candidate.

New ballot papers with improved security features are also being printed as per point 12 of the Supreme Court Guideline. The EC is printing 242,625 ballot papers, and is currently in discussion with the Maldives Police Services on transporting ballot papers to polling stations.

“We couldn’t do this by ourselves. All institutions are helping out. The police, the Department of National registration, the Civil Service Commission,” Manik said.

He also said that the commission was “positive” it would be able to ensure elections took place on October 19.

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UK MPs highlight “deteriorating situation” in the Maldives

An early day motion has been tabled in the UK Parliament calling upon the House of Commons to support the UN secretary general’s call for a “credible and peaceful second round of voting” in the Maldives.

Attempts to disqualify Nasheed’s candidacy – reportedly now backed by the religious Adhaalath Party – have already been criticised by incumbent President Dr Mohamed Waheed.

Rarely debated on the floor of the house, early day motions are used as a way to publicise topics of interest to certain MPs, with fellow members invited to add their name to the motion.

Robert Buckland MP this week also asked the leader of the house if time could be made available in the commons’ schedule for discussion of the current political crisis in the Maldives.

“May we find time for an urgent debate on the deteriorating situation in the Maldives, where the first round of a presidential election has been annulled and it is feared the authorities are trying to obstruct the return to power of President Nasheed, who was ousted in a coup last year and who clearly won an election that was described by international observers as free and fair?”

Leader of the House Andrew Lansley assured Buckland that he would request the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) to brief the house on the current situation during the next oral question session, if not earlier – the next FCO question time is scheduled for October 29.

Following the Supreme Court’s decision to annul the first round of voting earlier this week, UK Foreign Minister William Hague called upon the government of the Maldives to respect the democratic process, and to create conditions for a free and fair poll.

“It is imperative that there are no further delays and the elections be free, fair and inclusive, and that international observers are invited,” said Hague.

The United Kingdom remains one of the Maldives tourism industry’s biggest markets, although recent arrival figures show negative growth of a fall of -6.4% in UK arrivals this year when compared with 2012.

The FCO updated its travel advisory for the Maldives after growing unrest following the delaying of polls.

The guidance urged visitors to keep away from demonstrations: “There is no indication at present that any political unrest will affect tourist resorts or airports, but if you have any concerns you should check with your hotel or tour operator,” the statement read.

Voting for the rescheduled first round will begin at 7:30am on Saturday, October 19 and polls will be closed at 4:00pm, the Elections Commission announced at a press conference last night.

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Maldives entrepreneurs braving “culture war” to pursue guesthouse growth, AFP reports

The full story can be read here on Minivan News’ spin-off travel website Dhonisaurus.

“Most visitors arrive at the country’s airport island, take a speed boat or seaplane to their expensive coral-fringed private resort and spend the next week relaxing in blissful ignorance of the country around them,” writes Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalist Adam Plowright.

“It has been this way for decades, the result of a deliberate policy of keeping wealthy vacationers — mostly Westerners and often newlyweds — on uninhabited islands separate from the local Muslim population.”

The potential nonetheless for expanding mid-market tourism in the Maldives through the “niche” guesthouse segment emerged as an early election issue in May after senior opposition and government figures clashed over how best the country’s inhabited islands might profit from visitors.

Plowright himself observed that despite the Maldives’ reputation as one of the world’s most exclusive holiday destinations, the opening of guesthouses across the country over the last five years has appeared to upset some religious conservatives in the country.

Under the country’s laws, traditional holiday staples such as the sale and consumption of alcohol and pork products, and women publicly sunbathing in bikinis are outlawed unless on designated ‘uninhabited’ islands set aside exclusively for resort developments.

Plowright added that with the local Maldivian potentially facing public flogging should they be convicted on charges of ‘fornication’, the religious conservative Adhaalath Party had maintained that tourism be kept separate from the country’s inhabited islands.

“If the hippy-type of travellers come, along will come drugs and narcotics which even now our society is suffering from. Things like nudity are not acceptable in a place where people are living. The people complain that they are praying in the mosque and just outside there are tourists in bikinis,” Adhaalath Party Vice President Mauroof Hussain told the AFP.

“While fundamentalist interpretations of Islam imported from the Persian Gulf and Pakistan are progressively taking root in the Maldives, Hussain’s views lie far outside the mainstream and are ridiculed by many,” the AFP claimed.

The Adhaalath Party remains a key supporter in the upcoming election of Jumhoree Party (JP) presidential candidate and businessman MP Gasim Ibrahim, who operates a number of exclusive island resorts through his Villa Hotels company.

The presidential candidate’s resorts have thrived on supplying married and unmarried guests alike with holiday staples associated with the Maldives; including sun bathing, alcoholic beverages and diving expeditions.

Yet despite the prevalance of exclusive island resorts to tourism growth in the Maldives, efforts over the last half decade to expand guesthouses has led to a “torrent” of entrepreneurs like 25-year-old Ibrahim Mohamed opening tourist properties in an attempt to bring more US dollars directly into the local economy, according to Plowright.

Chinese tourists take big spending to Maldives: The Wall Street Journal

“Rich Chinese who are sick of crowds at home during major holidays have discovered the Maldives, the tropical islands that typically draw jet-setters from Europe looking for an exotic locale,” writes Wei Gu for ‘The Wall Street Journal’.

“The Maldives has become the most desired destination for the Chinese, according to a report from China’s Tourism Bureau. Chinese tourists now dominate travel to the island country, with 103,734 arrivals in the first seven months of 2013, up 66 percent from the same period in 2011, according to its Ministry of Tourism Arts and Culture.

Chinese visitor numbers dwarf those from the UK and Italy, which are in second and third place with 60,021 and 53,493 tourists, respectively.

During the recent Golden Week holiday, Zhu Hong, a partner in fashion boutique Shanghai Tang, joined with a group of eight business acquaintances for a private-jet trip to the Indian Ocean islands. The luxury-goods executive is now on his seventh passport after running out of pages on the previous six. Most of his friends, who are Shanghai property developers, haven’t spent as much time abroad, so they were eager to tag along with a well-travelled English speaker.

Unlike many Chinese who often travel with business associates, Mr Zhu normally prefers to spend holidays with his family, but made an exception because his son was training for a tennis tournament.

They stayed in villas on the water in the Maldives, but hardly dipped their toes in the water. They spent most of their time playing a popular Chinese card game called fighting the landlord.

‘Although I wished they have spent a bit more time on the beach, they really saw this game as an engaging intellectual challenge,’ Mr. Zhu said.

Well-off Chinese who are tired of beaches in Southeast Asia are looking for a new destination.

For Chinese passport holders, the Maldives is one of the few countries in the world that doesn’t require the hassle of a visa. Its white sand and lush green water couldn’t be more different than the travel scene in China during Golden Week, one of two weeks during the year when nearly the whole country is on holiday.”