Category: Politics

President calls for parties to cease attempts to obstruct election

President Mohamed Waheed has urged parties “not to act in a fashion that obstructs holding of the election and to prioritise national interest over personal interest”.

Waheed made the statement after the Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM) and Jumhooree Party (JP) this morning failed to sign the voter registry by the Elections Commission’s sunrise deadline.

Signing of the registry by the candidates is a new demand contained in the Supreme Court’s guidelines for the election, following its annullment of the first round of polls shortly before midnight on October 7.

At a press conference this morning EC Commissioner Fuwad Thowfeek said the JP and PPM had not sent nominees to sign the registry. Thowfeek said he had contacted Supreme Court Chief Justice Ahmed Faiz about the lack of response from the two candidates: “He told me to keep trying. Send people to their homes and keep trying. He did not say what else we should do.”

The PPM has subsequently demanded fingerprint verification of 10 percent of re-registration forms – nearly 7000, each with four fingerprints – a process the EC has said would take at least 20 days, missing the court’s October 20 deadline for the election.

President Waheed has meanwhile called on “all parties to cooperate and support the holding of a free and fair election as per the order of the Supreme Court.

“I call on the elections commission, political parties participating in the election and all relevant institutions together, to solve the challenges faced at the moment to create an atmosphere conducive to a free and fair election,” Waheed stated.

“It is also my request that arrangements of elections should be made in such a fashion that no citizen of the country has his right to vote undermined or deprived. On this occasion, I urge everyone not to act in a fashion that obstructs holding of the election and to prioritise national interest over personal interest,” he added.

Foreign Ambassadors and teams of international election observation are already present in the Maldives in expectation of an election being held tomorrow.

The nine-member Commonwealth observation team, led by former Prime Minister of Malta Dr Lawrence Gonzi, has already been deployed across the Maldives.

I hope that all Maldivians will play their part to ensure that the 19 October election is conducted in a credible and peaceful manner, so that the people of Maldives can exercise their fundamental right to choose their President,” said Dr Gonzi in a statement on Thursday.

The Commonwealth Observer Group to the 2013 Maldives elections will submit its final report to the Commonwealth Secretary-General, who will in turn send it to the government of the Maldives, the Elections Commission of Maldives, Maldivian political parties and eventually to all Commonwealth governments.

The nine-member Commonwealth Observer Group has been in Malé since 16 October, and will stay until 23 October. It is supported by officials of the Commonwealth Secretariat.

Besides Dr Gonzi the delegation includes South African Human Rights Commissioner Lindiwe Mokate, former Australian diplomat Hugh Craft, former Ghanaian minister Elizabeth Ohene, Jamaican governance expert professor Lisa Vasciannie, former Malaysian MP Yusmadi Yusoff, New Zealand MP Kate Wilkinson, UK elections expert John Turner, and Papua New Guinea’s Registrar of Political Parties, Dr Alphonse Gelu.

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Elections Commission unable to reach PPM and JP leaders to sign off on electoral register

The Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) and Jumhooree Party (JP) presidential candidates have demanded fingerprint verification of the finalised voter registry, with police refusing to support the election without the candidates’ signatures.

After submitting letters submitted to the Elections Commission (EC) after midnight, the party’s leaders have been unreachable.

The EC is ready to hold the re-run of the presidential election’s first round tomorrow (October 19) as soon as the candidates approve the voter registry.

The Supreme Court’s controversial annulment of the presidential election’s first round held September 7 gave the the EC less than 12 days to prepare for the repeat poll, and mandated the commission adhere to 16 guidelines, which included obtaining every presidential candidates’ signature on the finalised voter registry and having the police play a substantive role in handling the logistics and security of the election and ballot papers.

The EC has been unable to reach JP’s candidate Gasim Ibrahim or the PPM’s candidate Abdulla Yameen or their representatives to sign the lists.

The commission told a press conference this morning (October 18) that it has called, texted,  and sent officials to individual’s houses – as well as to the homes of JP representatives Umar Naseer and Hassan Shah – but has received no answer.

“We are trying our best to have the election as per the verdict of the Supreme Court,” said EC Vice Chairperson Ahmed Fayaz. “But with all the hard work of the last 11 days, now the process has almost been halted.”

“Although we’ve invited all the candidates to sign the voter registry, so far we have not been able to reach PPM and JP. However, MDP sent their representatives and signed the registry,” he noted.

Minivan News understand that certain PPM MPs have expressed their determination to prevent Saturday’s election from taking place.

“Without their signatures, the Maldives Police Service is not willing to support us. They will not give protection to conduct the election and if we hold polls it will be invalidated by the Supreme Court,” explained EC Chairperson Fuwad Thowfeek.

“The police need signatures of all three candidates or their representatives [before they will allow elections officials to depart to their respective polling stations with the printed ballot papers and voter lists],” said Thowfeek.

Thowfeek noted that he had spoken to Supreme Court’s Chief Justice Ahmed Faiz Hussain about the difficulty of meeting the deadline immediately following the October 8 ruling.

“I spoke to Faiz again today about the lack of response from two candidates regarding approving the voter lists. He told me to keep trying. Send people to their homes and keep trying. He did not say what else we should do,” said Thowfeek.

Fingerprint verification demands

After midnight last night the EC received letters from the PPM and JP demanding fingerprint verification of the voter registration forms.

“PPM wants fingerprint verification of 10 percent of reregistration forms, which is over 7000 forms,” said Thowfeek.

“It will take at least 20 days,” added EC Member Ali Mohamed Manik. “PPM also asked for rejected forms to be resubmitted. PPM said they will only sign list when these requests are attended to.”

“JP’s letter asked for verification of 5 percent of forms, which is over 3500 forms,” Thowfeek continued. “Each form has four people’s fingerprints, the voter, witnesses and the bearer’s fingerprint.”

“We asked if there are any suspicious forms submitted by specific people, so we can send those forms for verfication, but neither PPM or JP has provided a list like that,” he noted.

“This is not really practical at all, even the police only have fingerprints for some people, not everyone [eligible to vote],” Thowfeek added. “The Department of National Registration (DNR) says they don’t have the technical expertise, it’s not possible [to verify fingerprints].”

“This is going to take many days. We don’t have that many days. This is the last day to finish updating the forms [with candidate’s signatures], after that there is only one day to do everything, like sending personnel and materials.”

“It is an impossible demand they are making again,” lamented Thowfeek. “I don’t know why they don’t understand we don’t have time to do all these things [and adhere to the Supreme Court’s verdict].”

“We have not yet given a deadline. By giving a deadline it may make things more difficult,” he continued. “For example, if deadline of 12:00pm is given, and they don’t sign, then it may cause problems. The EC is willing to wait until last minute for signatures.”

“Up until today, we hoped Gasim and Yameen will cooperate with us. We have very little time. There is doubt if we can proceed without solving these problems,” stated Thowfeek.

“We urge [Qasim and Yameen] to sign the lists. The election is now in their hands.”

“We want to work until the last minute. We do not want to create a hopeless situation,” he declared.

Overseas vote and party responses

“Fortunately, Police Commissioner Abdulla Riyaz gave his approval for us to send election officials and materials to Delhi, India this morning on the condition that the EC sign a letter stating we will not allow polling to take place without signatures of all the candidates,” explained Thowfeek. “Instead the EC will send a PDF copy of the approved registry.”

This afternoon the elections officials need to depart for evening flights to London and Singapore, Thowfeek continued. The EC may need to seek approval from Riyaz to send officials and materials to these locations under the same conditions.

“We have not yet come to a situation where we cannot hold an election. We hope now and we continue to hope that the election proceeds. We are just trying to reach the candidates and their representatives,” added Commissioner Manik.

The opposition MDP announced yesterday (October 17) that it had accepted the modified voter registry despite finding some minor irregularities contained within, to ensure the re-run of the annulled 2013 presidential election goes ahead as scheduled on Saturday (October 19).

Ghafoor accused both the PPM and JP of deliberately trying to avoid a vote without giving sufficient reasons for their reservations.

“The situation is ridiculous, they have run away from the vote,” he said.

After attempts to contact senior JP leadership, Minivan News was advised to call party Spokesman Ibrahim Khaleel whose phone was switched off at the time off press.

Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) Presidential candidate Abdulla Yameen told Minivan News this morning that the party still had not seen the amended voter registry, while questioning why the MDP had signed the list ahead of Saturday’s scheduled vote.

“I fail to understand the MDP’s readiness to sign the list before seeing the list,” he said today.

In a correspondence obtained by Minivan News that was sent by Yameen to Elections Commissioner Fuwad Thowfeek this morning, the PPM expressed concern that it not even seen or had the chance to verify the registry.

“Please allow us 72 hours to verify [the list] and please comply with our request to authenticate the sample specimens of thumb prints,” stated the message. Today, a PPM team will visit you and request to physically see the 71,000 re-registered forms.”

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Comment: A fight like many others

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

This is what organising is. You talk to people and try to get them engaged. You tell them about what people are doing elsewhere, so they can glimpse what they could do. It is – wait for it – a kind of pollination.

– Bill McKibben, Oil and Honey:  The Education of an Unlikely Activist (New York:  Times Books, 2013), 117

The fight going on in the Maldives – a place most people couldn’t pinpoint within a thousand miles on a world map – may seem to be in a far-off place, a world away.  But it’s not. What is taking place in the Maldives is a fight for the future, for everyone’s future, a fight waged within a battle that we are all living through.

It’s a fight for democracy, in the first instance, an old fight like hundreds of others where a population stands up against lies, bullying, greed, power, and history.  It’s also a fight for human rights as outlined in that too little known claim of the UN’s magnificent universal declaration of 1948, where “food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control” are counted as equal to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion.

And lastly, and perhaps most important, it’s a quiet fight on a vast front that concerns us all:  humanity’s daunting, dogged struggle to face up to the ultimate existential threat of climate change, inexorably dragging us toward a cliff at the bottom of which lies a hell where all our descendants will live – real people, some now young, others yet to be born.

Fighting for democracy:  the yellow flags of freedom

In the first instance, this is a fight for democracy.  The bare outline of our story start with the 30-year dictatorship of Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who monopolised political power in the Maldives from 1978 to 2008.

If Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa once called the ruling party in Mexico the “perfect dictatorship” for the ways it found to win every election for over 70 years, we might well call the long night of Gayoom the “perfect presidency.”  Simultaneously styling himself president, head of the judiciary, and highest religious authority in the country, he “won” six elections in a row for the Maldivian People’s Party without an opposition candidate!

As The Economist colorfully puts it, he was “an autocratic moderniser who made the Maldives the wealthiest corner of South Asia by promoting high-end bikini-and-booze tourism (usually on atolls some distance away from the solidly Muslim local population).  He also crushed dissent, let capricious and poorly educated judges make a mockery of the law, and allowed social problems to fester.”

One person whose dissent Gayoom could not crush was the young journalist Mohamed Nasheed. Imprisoned multiple times, tortured, held in solitary confinement, Nasheed left the Maldives to co-found the Maldivian Democratic Party, the MDP, in 2003.  In 2008, when the country’s first ever free elections were held, Nasheed won on the second round after polling just 25 percent of the vote in the first round to Gayoom’s 40 percent, because he united the opposition parties in the final round to take 54 percent of the vote.  Yet the price Nasheed paid for making conservative politician Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik his running mate, because on February 6-8, 2012 Nasheed was the object of a well orchestrated plot by his political enemies that led to his deposition and Waheed’s eager ascension to the presidency in a coup that the British Commonwealth and other members of the international community shamefully legitimated and let stand.

Now Nasheed seeks to return to power with a new mandate arising from the Maldivian people, who are struggling to make their votes count.  Despite overwhelming endorsement as clean and fair by every international observer, a narrow majority of the country’s Supreme Court ruled that the September 7 first-round presidential elections were null and void on a flimsy complaint from the disgruntled third place finisher, a decision that proves that reality can sometimes be stranger than fiction.

One of the justices who annulled the election has been caught in bed with three sex workers on YouTube but remains in place in a country where 99 percent of the population is Muslim, and Nasheed’s main opposition slanders the candidate for being irreligious.  The Court’s decision was based on a still secret report by the same police who ousted Nasheed in the coup;  neither the MDP or the Electoral Commission was allowed to set foot in the courtroom for final arguments in the case.

The electoral math of an outright victory on October 19 requires Nasheed to take roughly 10 percent of the votes that went to the other three candidates combined in the first round on September 7.  That is, to his 95,224 first-round voters he must add about 10,000 of the votes shared among his three opponents:  the Progressive Party of the Maldives candidate Abdulla Yameen’s 53,099, the Justice Party’s Gasim Ibrahim’s 50,422, and the current President Waheed’s 10,750.  This assumes that the three candidates unite to field only a single candidate whom they all endorse.  Waheed has dropped out of the race without advising his few voters to vote for either Gasim or Yameen, wishing to sound the statesman who wants only to guide the country through these difficult times.  On October 15, the would-be statesman asserted there was “‘room for doubt’ over the integrity and fairness of this year’s polls,” words that drip with irony from the man who made himself president in a coup.

Meanwhile the lust for the presidency has gripped both of the major reactionary candidates, to their mutual detriment.  Gasim, having gotten his way through the bankrupt morals of his friends in the court, feels those 10,000 votes are his, and will bring him the second place finish he couldn’t obtain legitimately on the first first round. It doesn’t matter to him how he wins, nor does he think his crimes will tarnish his presidency. Of his rival Yameen, he claims, “I would rather walk into the sea with my wives and children than join Yameen.”

Yameen hates Nasheed and everything the MDP stands for, but his love of country is not great enough to countenance a deal with the billionaire who robbed him of his place in the run-off the first time around.  Look for Yameen to cry foul if he places third this time around! Interestingly, Waheed’s vice-presidential running mate, Ahmed Thasmeen Ali, leader of the Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) on whose ticket he ran for vice president in 2008 with Gayoom, unexpectedly has advised former party members to vote for Nasheed’s MDP ticket.

There is clearly great sympathy for Nasheed.  One can see it in the yellow-bedecked streets of Male, the capital city.  The outrageous tactics of his opponents over the last year and a half have generated a groundswell of good feeling for Nasheed’s principled and open campaign which has brought him to every inhabited place in the Maldives to meet the people, and led him to personally sign a letter addressed to every one of the country’s registered voters.

The campaign has been a model of grassroots organising, literally a “Door to Door” campaign with a thousand volunteers committed to visiting every family in the country, generating a massive amount of genuine passion and enthusiasm on the ground.  The MDP reports that it has received pledges of votes from 125,000 of the 240,000 eligible voters in its door to door canvas, while registering thousands of new voters:  the median age in the Maldives is 26 and the MDP’s campaign is by far the most media-savvy. “Statistics and the smiles of the people” portend victory, Nasheed says.

It’s also a fight for a better life for the 330,000 people of the Maldives.  While in power, the Nasheed administration delivered free healthcare, a national university (Nasheed’s running mate, Dr Musthafa Luthfy, was appointed as the first Chancellor of the Maldives National University), pensions for the elderly, social housing, improved transportation among the islands, and civil liberties such as freedom of expression and security of one’s person unheard of in the Maldivian context. In the current MDP campaign manifesto entitled “The Other Maldives,” a document that provides a detailed development plan in 525 pages, there is an explicit “social justice” provision:

With targeted interventions, the government expects to open up opportunities for the most disadvantaged sections of the society to emerge from their present conditions of poverty thereby helping the country achieve its development goals.

The government has embarked on a policy of transforming the current fragmented social safety net programs into a comprehensive social protection system, ensuring fiscal sustainability and effectiveness of social assistance to those most vulnerable, to enable them to live a life of dignity.

The MDP has pledged to raise $4.6 billion in tax revenues over the next five years. Over forty percent of these revenues are earmarked for some 137 development projects, to generate 51,000 jobs, build 20,000 housing units, provide aid to single parents and persons with disabilities, and make loans available to students.

A Fight for All of Us:  The Island President and the Climate Justice Minister

In October 2009, Nasheed grabbed the world’s attention by holding a cabinet meeting underwater, with ministers in scuba gear sitting at a table signing documents calling on all countries to cut their greenhouse gas emissions:  “We must unite in a world war effort to halt further temperature rises. Climate change is happening and it threatens the rights and security of everyone on Earth.  We have to have a better deal.  We should be able to come out with an amicable understanding that everyone survives.  If Maldives can’t be saved today, we do not feel that there is much of a chance for the rest of the world”.

At the historic 2009 UN climate summit in Copenhagen, he declared Maldives’ goal of becoming the world’s first carbon-neutral country:

For us swearing off fossil fuels is not only the right thing to do, it is in our economic self-interest….  Pioneering countries will free themselves from the unpredictable price of foreign oil; they will capitalize on the new green economy of the future, and they will enhance their moral standing giving them greater political influence on the world stage.

One of us (John Foran) well remembers being in the audience that November at the alternative People’s Klimaforum when we heard that Nasheed was coming direct from his arrival at the airport to address us, rather than making his way to the high-level negotiations where the other presidents and prime ministers were gathering.  Young climate activists greeted him on that occasion with a banner that read “You Are Our Global President.”

At the talks, he and minister of environment Mohamed Aslam carried the banner of the many frontline island nations most threatened by climate change, and their principled stand and frank exchanges stand at the centre of Jon Shenk’s spellbinding 2012 film, The Island President.

When the coup came in February 2012, support for the struggle against Nasheed’s forced departure was quickly voiced by the global climate justice community.  British environmentalist Mark Lynas, Nasheed’s climate consultant and author of Six Degrees:  Our Future on a Hotter Planet, wrote in The Guardian:  “The deposed president is famous for his efforts to fight climate change, but his lifelong struggle has been for democracy – and now I fear for his safety.”

Nasheed has survived, and so has the climate justice movement in the Maldives, which is not a one- (or two-) man affair.  On 350.org’s Connect the Dots day of action on May 5, 2012, prominent writer-activist Bill McKibben’s thoughts went out to the Maldives, “where people turned out even though a military coup had sidelined the island country’s democracy just weeks before” (Oil and Honey, 121).

Climate justice is the Maldives’s long-term inter-generational struggle;  it must be addressed for the nascent democracy to matter.  As Nasheed states in The Island President, “We view climate change in the context of democracy.  Without democracy, you cannot enact.  The former dictatorship wasted $200 million because they gave the contracts to the wrong people.”  The country’s chances of addressing the climate chaos that is inexorably descending upon it are immeasurably enhanced if Nasheed, and democracy, prevail in this election.

Prior to the coup, Mohamed Aslam stated that the only way to address the issue of climate change is with the pressure of the people: “The people must realize that this issue needs to be resolved. It must become an election issue.  People should elect leaders who have got the courage to face this issue and to deal with it.”

If Nasheed and Aslam represent the Maldives once again at COP19 UN climate summit in Warsaw this November, the balance of forces now tilted so heavily toward the fossil fuel corporations and governments, and thus to the climate catastrophe dictated by their business as usual attitude, will shift – at least to some degree – back in the direction dictated by science and championed by the 99.99 percent.  October 19 may be a national election in a small country, but it could bring to power a global president with a passion for climate justice.

What happens in the Maldives concerns us all

The Maldives now stands at a crossroads where its future forks one way or another.  Its ordeal has been a prolonged one.  The elections are, in effect, a popular referendum on the legality of the coup and on vastly different visions for the future of the country.  One way lies a hard but clear-eyed path toward a low-carbon sustainable development and a functioning democracy.  The alternative is a descent into a darkness that would be all the greater for having spent a few years in the sunlight after 2008.

Political analyst Azra Naseem considers this moment in history as an “all­-out confrontation between democracy and autocracy in which the biggest weapon of the autocrats is the judicial independence that is widely accepted as a means of making democracy possible. If there ever was a text­book case of democracy being subverted by the rule of law, the unfolding events in the Maldives is it. If there is no election on 19 October, the only power that can stand up to the unchecked power of the judiciary is the source from which both judicial power and democracy stems: the power of the people.”

It’s hard to see it any other way.

As Nasheed said on October 13, “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.”  It is of note that the scales of justice adorn the MDP flag.  And as an anonymous blogger posted recently on a Maldives news website:  “If we lose this opportunity and let democracy be robbed, we lose everything.”

October 19, 2013:  a fight like many others that concerns us all.

John Foran is Professor of Sociology and Environmental Studies at University of California (UC), and Co-director of the International Institute of Climate Action and Theory (IICAT). Summer Gray is a PhD candidate in Sociology at UC and Associate Editor at IICAT.

All comment pieces are the sole view of the author and do not reflect the editorial policy of Minivan News. If you would like to write an opinion piece, please send proposals to [email protected]

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MDP, PPM, JP host final campaign rallies amidst uncertainties of election day proceeding

Candidates contesting in the fresh round of presidential elections scheduled for October 19 held their final major rallies in capital city Male’ prior to election day, each expressing views about how Saturday’s voting may proceed.

The Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), which received the majority votes – 45.45% – in the now annulled September 7 first round held their rally at the open grounds near the tsunami monument, with several thousand supporters in attendance.

Candidate Mohamed Nasheed, his deputy Dr Mustafa Lutfi and the party’s Chairperson ‘Reeko’ Moosa Manik were among those who addressed the rally, with key politicians from the Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) including its leader Ahmed Thasmeen Ali also speaking.

Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) held its meeting in Dharubaaruge’s Dhoshimeyna Hall with approximately 600 supporters in attendance. In addition to the party’s presidential candidate Abdulla Yameen, his half-brother – PPM leader and former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, vice-presidential candidate Mohamed Jameel Ahmed, current Minister of Tourism Ahmed Adheeb, as well as several MPs were in attendance.

Jumhooree Coalition held their rally in their campaign headquarters, Kunooz, with a similar turn-to the PPM’s rally. Besides Jumhooree Party (JP) leader and candidate Gasim Ibrahim, political leaders from various coalition partners spoke at the rally. This includes former Interim Deputy Leader of PPM Umar Naseer and Adhaalath Party (AP) leader Sheikh Imran Abdulla.

“On Saturday, people will re-ascertain their right to vote”: MDP candidate Nasheed

MDP presidential candidate Mohamed Nasheed told the thousands of supporters gathered to hear his address that Saturday’s vote, in addition to electing him president, will also be the day that the people re-ascertain their constitutional right to elect a government for themselves.

“Citizens of Maldives desire reform, they want a system which will establish better living standards for themselves. They want a democratic system, to establish a government of the people through a vote. The people’s nature is leaning towards an election, towards change and to maintain democratic norms in the country. MDP is a party centred on development, it is a party which moves swiftly forward,” he stated.

“Important days are coming up in the life of the Maldives, with day after tomorrow being one of the most crucial days. This coming Saturday is the day on which through sheer determination and will the Maldivian people will re-establish their right to vote despite attempts by those involved in the 30 year autocratic regime trying to strip the people of this very fundamental right. It is the day when we will, God willing, win this election in one single round,” Nasheed said.

“For ages, Maldives has had a culture where elections are tampered with. We are still hearing the people from the 30 year regime speak of this philosophy of election tampering from their various political podiums. They claim that it is in the interests of the country, and for religion and nation, that they have been tampering with citizens’ votes. However, today the most important basis of our Constitution is the right to have a fair democratic election. Although there is a small number of people still trying to mess with the votes cast, the people are no longer willing to allow them to do so,” he continued.

“For the better part of two years we have been hearing the chants ‘where is my vote?’ and ‘we want elections now’. It is deeply set in our hearts that the ‘baaghees’ [traitors] have stolen our votes, that ‘baaghees’ have been treacherous towards our votes. Our citizens are not ready to lose these votes,” he said.

“Saturday’s election is not just about electing Kenereege Mohamed Nasheed as president. It is the day citizens regain their right to vote”.

Nasheed further echoed the various pledges outlined in the party’s “Costed and Budgeted Manifesto: 2013 – 2018”.

“We will restore lost individual rights”: PPM candidate Yameen

Meanwhile, PPM candidate Abdulla Yameen reiterated the party’s stance of proceeding with an election if the Elections Commission (EC) abides by the Supreme Court’s 16-point guideline.

“Together, we have decided to vote in a system that protects fundamental rights, and ensures a free, sincere vote to elect who they choose to be president,” Yameen said.

Yameen said the party has still not received the finalized voter registry and noted that party members continued to file complaints over re-registration.

According to the Supreme Court, every candidate is required to approve the voter registry for the election to proceed.

At a press conference on Thursday evening, the PPM had said it required 72 hours to approve the voter registry. The EC has given political parties until 6 am on Friday to sign the registry.

Yameen pledged to “restore lost individual rights” and said a PPM government would end arrest of political rivals and judges. The PPM will increase revenue, ensure a balanced budget, increase old age pensions to MVR5000 per month, and ensure fishermen were given an allowance of MVR10,000 in low season, Yameen said.

“We will bring you development like you’ve never seen before. Development is certain with us,” he said.

Speaking of challenges the PPM had faced during the campaign, Yameen said the party had not had enough time to circulate the party’s manifesto.

PPM published its manifesto only four days before the annulled first round of presidential elections held on September 7.

“Main concern is the voters’ registry; if it’s satisfactory will proceed with elections”: JP candidate Gasim

The JP rally also consisted of nearly 600 supporters, with leadership figures from the coalition including former PPM interim deputy leader Umar Naseer, AP leader Sheikh Imran Abdulla, AP deputy leader Dr. Mauroof Hassan, former Defence Minister Tholhath Ibrahim Kaleyfaan filling the front lines.

JP Candidate Gasim Ibrahim stated that among the 16 points provided by the SC, the key concern for the party was the one regarding the voters’ registry, adding that this is where problems had risen for him even in the first round of elections on September 7.

“We had to go to court after these problems arose because the EC refused to cooperate and address our concerns. I want to call upon the EC to refrain from doing so this time around. I’d like to request the EC to work closely with us citizens considering that this is to do with citizens’ vote. This approach will be what is in the best interests of this country,” Gasim said.

“If we do get to vote on Saturday, it must only be under an assurance from observers and other relevant administrative authorities that the election will proceed in a manner that we too can readily accept, otherwise we will end up with the same issues as the previous round.”

Gasim addressed the party’s monitors, advising them on key issues to ‘keep a keen eye on during voting hours’, saying “As there hasn’t been very many elections here, people are not well-trained on how it should go. We must be vigilant at all times and keep an eye out to see if any voter tries to keep his hand in his pocket nonchalantly and then pull out and try to drop in an extra ballot paper while casting the vote. We must keep watch and see if they try to mix up anything during the counting of votes. And we must get close enough to be able to see if, after counting, they are placing the correct number against our names. We know the EC has previously committed such acts, where they mix up runner-ups and those who come third”.

Gasim stated that the party will “accept elections readily if it is conducted in accordance with the guidelines issued by the SC” and that the party is ready to proceed with voting once they are “absolutely certain that the voter registry satisfactorily meets our standards”.

“I want to say that we need not reveal what we will do if we come third, as we will not end up in that slot again. We can make decisions about that once we reach that situation, as I am certain that the different parties in our coalition will have their own different views about this. There is no rush, it’s not like we are a soul caught in a life or death situation.”

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Elections Commission confident of preparations for October 19 election, compliance with Supreme Court guidelines

The Elections Commission (EC) has said it has complied with all guidelines issued by the Supreme Court following its annulment of the September 7 election, and is confident it will be prepared for the presidential election this Saturday October 19.

In compliance with the guidelines the EC said it had collaborated with 28 state institutions, particularly the police, Department of National Registration (DNR) and National Centre for Information Technology (NCIT), and was currently processing complaints received regarding the recompiled the voters list based on the DNR’s registry.

New ballot boxes had been introduced for the Male municipality, while all elections officials had been vetted and retrained according to the Supreme Court’s guidelines. New security features had been included on the ballot papers while the NCIT had advised the commission on its database.

Media would be allowed to use reporting equipment to cover the election following the Supreme Court’s supplemental ruling on October 12.

“Most of the work is done. What remains is [parties] approving the voter registry, and sending off ballot boxes and papers,” said EC member Ali Mohamed Manik during a press conference on Thursday evening.

“The most difficult challenge has been the time limit. We don’t have enough time to attend to everything as much as we would like to. It has been difficult for us and the public,” EC President Fuad Thowfeek said.

Following the Supreme Court’s midnight ruling on October 10 ordering the EC to redo the entire voter re-registration process, the commission received 70,000 re-registration forms in just a 24-hour period from voters wishing to vote a location other than their home island. 65,000 voters re-registered ahead of the annulled September 7 poll.

The election will involve 476 ballot boxes and 1500 voter lists, each between 15-20 pages long. Overseas lists will be prioritised, so that ballot boxes and papers can be shipped to locations on Friday morning. Police will provide security to local locations.

Most complaints received by the commission involved people being registered at locations other than those requested during re-registration, while some forms were rejected due to incomplete information.

“As soon as the database is clean and complaints are attended to, we will print the lists. We will invite candidate’s representatives to put their fingerprints and signatures,” Thowfeek said.

Nasheed’s Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) has already accepted the new list, noting that while the margin of error was higher at 0.61 percent, this was still “negligible”.

The party noted that the revised voter registry is based on the Department of National Registration (DNR)’s registry and lists 239,198 eligible voters, 395 fewer than the 239,593 in the annulled September 7 polls that saw an 88 percent voter turnout.

“When the voter list of 7 September 2013 compiled by the Election Commission is compared with the 19 October 2013 voter list compiled by the Election Commission with the Department of National Registration as its source, we find that there an additional 2258 ID cards,” the MDP noted in a statement today.

The MDP counted 62 people on the list as doubled or repeated, 0.03 percent of eligible voters, while 789 individuals turned 18 years of age between 7 September 2013 and 19 October 2013 and became eligible to vote.

“When the 789 children who turned 18 are subtracted from the additional ID cards (2,258) on the eligible voters list for 19 October 2013, we note that 1,469 persons have been added to the voters list in unclear circumstances. That is 0.61% of eligible voters,” the party noted.

“Despite noting the aforementioned matters, since the margin of error (0.61%) is negligible and because the Constitution of the Maldives states that there must be an elected President on 11 November 2013, the MDP has decided to accept the list and go ahead with the Presidential Election scheduled to be held on 19 October 2013.

“We believe the voter registry is correct and we are ready to vote with that list. If an election is not held on October 19, and a new president is not elected by [the end of the presidential term] November 11, we lose the constitution,” said former President Nasheed.

Jumhoree Party (JP) candidate Gasim Ibrahim said this afternoon that the party would verify the list as soon it was received.

“We do not have any intention to delay the election,” Gasim said, stating that there was no reason why the election should not be held on Saturday.

Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM) Deputy Leader Abdul Raheem Abdulla said the party would ask the Elections Commission for 72 hours to check the registry, although the EC said during the press conference that it had not received such a request.

“We want the election to be held on the 19th, but with [the Supreme Court guidelines] completed. I do not believe it is possible for all candidates to sign a 10,000 page voter registry and hand over to the Elections Commission by sunset. The election cannot be held as per the Supreme verdict unless that list is handed over,” Raheem stated.

MDP candidate Nasheed tweeted: “Once I receive the voter lists for each ballot box, it will not take me more than two hours for me to check and sign it.”

Elections Commission Fuwad Thowfeek said candidates were expected to sign each booklet, not every single page.

“I hope after so much work by the Elections Commission and the people of the country, candidates will sign it. They have seen how much work we have done and how much the public wants a vote,” said Thowfeek.

The Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM) has meanwhile appealed to all eligible voters to take “individual responsibility” that the information on the voter registry was same as that on their identity cards, passports and licences.

“Voting is one of the most important opportunities in public participation in governance in a democracy. Use this right with independence, and without influence,” HRCM stated, calling on all political parties to support a successful election and not obstruct the voting process.

The President’s Office issued a statement ordering the Ministry of Home Affairs to ensure the relevant institutions under the Ministry of Home Affairs “conduct matters relating to the first round of presidential elections to be held on 19 October 2013, freely and fairly as per the guidelines delineated by the Supreme Court.”

The JP, PPM and MDP were meanwhile holding rallies tonight ahead of the final day of campaigning.

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“Personal Pledges”: JP Candidate Qasim Ibrahim vows to fulfill wishes from individuals

Jumhooree Party (JP) leader and presidential candidate Gasim Ibrahim launched a new pledge on Tuesday – three days ahead of the re-scheduled election – titled ‘Personal Pledges’, vowing to provide each citizen with a “more dignified life”.

Speaking at a press conference held to reveal the new pledge Gasim’s coalition partner, former interim Deputy President of Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) Umar Naseer – stated that the new pledge would “benefit and be a long-term advantage to every individual Maldivian citizen without any discrepancies between one another”.

Naseer stated that the JP candidate is currently sending letters to members of the electorate detailing the new pledge. Along with the letter, a form with a list of applicable pledges that citizens can request is to be sent to each citizen, which needs to be filled out and returned to the JP campaign offices.

“If you beloved citizens, God willing, elect me as President in this year’s presidential election, I pledge to fulfill one or more of the pledges listed in this letter preferred by each citizen so as to ensure a dignified and respectable life for every citizen,” the letter reads.

It then goes on to state that, if elected, Gasim would assign “an annual amount of MVR1.5 billion from the state budget to fulfill these personal pledges in accordance to a law or regulation which will be passed to support the matter”.

The categories in the attached list are: aid/loans, advance to newly begin building houses, purchasing of flats, costs to complete houses, materials needed for a household, funds to start-up a business, funds to expand a business, course fees/tuition fees/school fees, funds to receive treatment abroad for permanent illnesses, repayment of loans, repayment of debts, and payment of house rent.

It ends with an additional column titled ‘other’, which, according to Naseer, can be used to request for anything not already listed in the form.

However, the party does not detail – either in the letter or the press conference – any application for the deadline.

JP Spokesperson Moosa Ramiz said that this was done deliberately so as to let the electorate know that if Gasim is elected, their requests will be processed even if submitted at any time in his five year term.

“The thing is, we will only be able to fulfill the pledges if we win the elections and come to power. And so we decided to not specify dates as the people can continue submitting their ‘Personal pledges’ at any point in time during Gasim’s five year term,” Ramiz said.

“Now, once elected, it doesn’t matter to us who is submitting a request – whether it is someone who voted for Gasim or not. We will fulfill their wishes regardless of who they might have voted for,” he continued.

“We are getting an extraordinary amount of support for this pledge. I don’t know yet what the exact number of submissions are, but I am confident that we can tell just by using commonsense that such a pledge will be receiving immense support. After all, for over 30 years even to date, the average Maldivian citizen cannot make ends meet, even married couples are unable to find time to sleep together as they are forced to share rooms with children due to population congestion. Therefore, I am sure this pledge is being very well-received,” he stated.

Elections Commission Secretary General Asim Abdul Sattar told Minivan News today that the pledge has not been brought to the commission’s attention. He further said, if it the matter is submitted as an official complaint to the commission, it would investigate whether the failure to provide a deadline to submit pledges by citizens exerts undue influence on the elections.

An official from the Anti Corruption Commission, speaking on condition of anonymity, stated that the commission members “wished to refrain from commenting on the matter at the current time”.

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Indian foreign secretary arrives in Male’ ahead of poll

India’s Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh has arrived in the Maldives today ahead of Saturday’s re-scheduled presidential election.

A press release from the Indian High Commission said that Ms Singh “strongly urged all parties to accept the results of elections to enable a smooth transfer of power and reconciliation post elections.”

Indian media has reported that Singh’s presence in Male’ is intended to stop political parties from derailing the election process.

The Indian Express described the secretary’s trip south as “her first crisis management assignment” after taking the post in August.

Singh met with Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) candidate Mohamed Nasheed at midday today inside the Indian High Commission.

Speaking to the media afterwards, former President Nasheed explained that the Indian Foreign Secretary believed the election would go ahead this weekend, and that there must be a new president in office by November 11.

The High Commission’s press release revealed that Singh had also met with Defence Minister Mohamed Nazim, former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, and incumbent President Dr Mohamed Waheed.

“Ms. Sujatha Singh reiterated India’s call for free, fair, inclusive and credible elections in a peaceful environment fulfilling the democratic aspirations of the people of Maldives,” the statment read.

“She expressed the hope and expectation that the electoral process would proceed as scheduled with the first round to be held on October 19, and if required, the second round before November 3 so that a new President is sworn in on November 11 as stipulated by the constitution of Maldives.”

The constitutionally mandated deadline has been a source of concern for many who have argued that the country may enter a constitutional void should a new president not be installed by November 11.

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

Singh’s arrival in Male’ adds to the significant international presence in the capital as the polling date approaches.

Elections Commissioner Fuwad Thowfeek told Minivan News last weekend that he had been in discussions with the UK, the German, and the US ambassadors.

Thowfeek explained that the German and US ambassadors were currently in the country, whilst Indian, EU, and Commonwealth representatives were said to have been on their way.

The Commonwealth delegation is also understood to have arrived in Male’ today.

The Supreme Court’s decision to annul the first round contradicted the positive assessments of more than a thousand local and international election observers.

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Abdulla Yameen never destined to become president, says rival candidate Gasim

Resort tycoon and Jumhooree Party (JP) presidential candidate Gasim Ibrahim has said that fellow candidate Abdulla Yameen – who is contesting in the presidential poll as the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) candidate – will never be able to secure enough popular support to become the next president.

The Supreme Court’s decision to annul the first round of presidential elections came as a result of a petition filed by the JP, in which the party claimed the election had been flawed due to a number of discrepancies and irregularities in the voting process that amounted to a “systematic failure”.

Gasim’s new verbal attacks on Yameen came in a JP campaign rally held in Kanditheemu Island, Shaviyani Atoll,  last night (October 16).

Speaking during the rally, the businessman-turned-politician told his supporters that Yameen had only won the PPM presidential primaries held earlier this year with the help of some 7,000 fraudulent votes he obtained by infiltrating opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) members into PPM ahead of the party’s internal election.

During the PPM primaries held earlier in March, Yameen edged out former PPM Interim Vice President Umar Naseer, taking 13,096 votes out of the total 20,546 votes cast in the party poll.

Challenging the elections result, citing electoral fraud, corruption and violence, Naseer subsequently filed a lawsuit at the Civil Court challenging the outcome of the poll. However, the Civil Court rejected the case and saw Naseer expelled from the PPM for “sowing discord amongst the party flanks”.

Yameen – who is the half-brother of Maldives’ former autocratic ruler Maumoon Abdul Gayoom – meanwhile dismissed all the allegations, while Naseer subsequently backed Gasim Ibrahim in the presidential poll.

Addressing yesterday’s rally, Gasim stated that the reason Yameen would not be able to garner the popular support of the people was that people had still not forgotten their mistreatment under Gayoom’s reign, in which Yameen had been a central figure.

Gasim also responded to the PPM’s allegations that he was “stuck” under the influence of advisers sympathetic to his political rivals, namely the MDP.  He said that Yameen and the PPM making such remarks was due to the fact that he had refused to declare his support for Yameen in the event of a run-off duel between Yameen and MDP candidate Mohamed Nasheed.

He alleged that Yameen had been making such remarks to cover up his poor presidential campaign, during which he had failed to even visit the majority of the islands in the country.

“A mu’min cannot be bitten twice from one hole; hence I shall never support Nasheed”: Gasim

The resort tycoon also brushed off the ongoing public speculation that he would back Nasheed in a similar case of a run-off election.

The speculations began after Nasheed had a private meeting with Gasim Ibrahim in his own residence last month. Nasheed after the meeting told the press that they had met to discuss “discussed matters of national interest and maintaining stability and public order”.

“As I have said before, a Mu’min (Arabic terminology for pious Muslim) cannot be bitten twice from one hole. That is a narration of Prophet Muhammad. May Allah never show us a day where I would work to help [Nasheed] win the presidency,” Gasim told the rally.

Explaining the reason why he had backed Nasheed in 2008 presidential election – which Nasheed went onto win in the run-off election to become the fourth president of Maldives – was because he wanted to establish good governance and democratic principles in the country.

However, the Chairman of Villa Group said that it had been a “terrible” decision that ultimately caused more grief to the people.

The JP candidate also accused Nasheed of promoting Yameen over him in the presidential election because “Nasheed knows he would swiftly win the presidency should Yameen be contesting him in a possible run-off election”.

“If Abdulla Yameen goes to the second position, [Nasheed] knows he would easily win the second round of elections. If Gasim Ibrahim gets to the second or first position, he knows he must bow down saying bye-bye and good-bye to presidency,” Gasim told his supporters.

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“No rest, no sleep” until deadline: EC Commissioner

Additional reporting by Mohamed Naahii

“We are very certain the election will be held as scheduled, but not everything is within our control,” Elections Commissioner (EC) Fuwad Thowfeek told a press conference tonight (October 16).

“We are giving our maximum effort to reach the deadline. No rest, no sleep, two hours [maximum]. We were working 24 hours straight, then 36, now 48. Our officials are doing everything humanly possible. International observers are even surprised [at the intensive effort put forth],” said Thowfeek.

Following the Supreme Court’s annulment of the first round of presidential elections, the EC had been given less than 12 days to prepare for the repeat poll – scheduled to take place this Saturday (October 19).

The commission has said it normally requires 45-60 days of preparation to hold a presidential election in accordance with the Maldives’ constitution and general elections law.

The Supreme Court’s verdict delineated 16 guidelines the EC must follow in holding a new round of polling before October 20, including using the DNR’s database as the “main source to determine eligible voters”.

Currently, the commission is primarily working on processing voter re-registration forms and entering the information into its database, Thowfeek explained.

With the commission not yet having completed the process, it has extended its complaints filing deadline to 2:ooam.

“We are receiving complaints and will correct the mistakes based on the voter re-registration forms,” said EC Commission Member Ali Mohamed Manik. “The problem is that a large number of people want to be registered to vote at different locations [other than their home islands].”

Whether the EC can finish processing the re-registration forms by its goal of tomorrow morning has not yet been confirmed.

Deadline looms

Thus far, 56,243 forms have been processed and the EC expects over 60,000 people to have re-registered – leaving approximately 10,000 forms remaining. After this process is finished, the commission hopes to begin printing the final voter registry tomorrow morning.

The EC has already provided political parties with the voter lists and will give them the finalized voter registry once it is completed.

“We hope the candidates will sign the voter registry, as responsible people. If they don’t then we will determine what to do at that point in time,” said Thowfeek. “We do not know what to say if they do not sign the registry. We don’t know whether the election can be held or not if that occurs.”

Meanwhile, the EC has completed printing the ballot papers – with candidate number two, President Mohamed Waheed having been removed – and is in the process of verifying and checking the ballots.

However, the commission cannot seal the ballots for transportation until after the voter registry has been finalised.

Additionally, all the elections officials have been selected and trained, however they cannot be sent to the polling station locations until the voter list is finalized, noted EC Secretary General Asim Abdul Sattar.

The EC is aiming for officials to depart to polling station locations on the islands tomorrow.

“If elections officials do not leave for London tomorrow night, there will be no ballots in London,” said Manik.

“For example, it would be really strange if you were asked to build a 10 story building in 10 days and then hand over the keys, but such a thing we are doing,” he continued. “This is not something we have ever experienced, we apologise for everything.”

“Last time we formed a timetable and followed it, but now we have minimal time, so we are trying to finish things as fast as we can,” he noted. “We are doing everything as per the Supreme Court guidelines.

“We need to consider the ongoing Cambridge O’Level examinations – that is also why we will hold the election Saturday,” he continued.

Ongoing challenges

The EC noted that the holiday period had made their task even more difficult.

“Some temporary officials took leave for Hajj and Eid, however we cannot hire new staff because it each person requires two hours of training,” said Thowfeek.

“The government is giving a lot of assistance, which is the only reason the EC can keep going,” he noted. “We are working around the clock to hold the election on October 19.”

The Department of National Registration (DNR) provided the EC with the details of their database, however they have since amended some of the information and still need to provide their updated registry to the commission, explained Manik. We are still talking with the DNR to resolve the issue.

He also noted that the EC is working with the DNR to verify individuals’ records and address complaints the commission has received.

“For example, according to the DNR, Moomina Haleem [the country’s first female cabinet minister] is deceased, however we met with her and determined it was actually her husband that died. So we have to make sure people like Moomina Haleem do not lose their right to vote, explained Thowfeek.

“Now an individual can only cast their vote if all their personal information is correct [in accordance with the DNR’s database,” he noted.

Today the DNR admitted it had “faced difficulties in obtaining information on people who have passed away abroad”.

“We are following the Supreme Court guidelines; we are doing everything as they’ve said,” Thowfeek emphasised. “We will take action against those who conduct fraud.”

“By the will of Allah we will do everything we can to hold the election on October 19,” he added.

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