The Juvenile Court has sentenced a 17 year-old boy to four months in prison after he kissed a 16 year-old girl in a court waiting room. The girl was sentenced to four months house arrest.
Maldives’ Elections Commission Chairperson Fuwad Thowfeek discusses the Jumhooree coalition’s refusal to accept their first-round defeat and the subsequent vote rigging allegations which have triggered a barrage of judicial, political and media actions against the commission.
The Maldives continues to face huge issues of food security, last year importing 90 percent of all goods consumed, while also being one of the most “oil vulnerable” countries in the world, according to a government report calling for significant economic diversification.
Following a full week of hearings into the Jumhooree Party’s election complaints, the High Court granted the party’s request to view the offending register. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court accepted the JP’s case seeking to annul the first round altogether.
Modernisation facilitated the positive social transformations that eventually produced democracy in the Maldives while international pressure for democratic reforms also played a significant role in democratisation, writes Ahmed Hamdhan.
The MDP expressed concern with what it contended was Sheikh Shameem’s “incitement of hatred among the public with the intention of influencing the [presidential] election” and warned that NGOs “sowing discord in society for the undue political benefit of another party” could see the “increasing freedom of expression, economic development and civilisation of the present turn into the brutality and fear of the past.”
“If it is too much hassle for tourists to visit, people will not come here [on holiday] and will look to other destinations,” said the head of the Maldives National Chamber of Commerce and Industry. “Tourism is is based around trying to make clients happy. We are concerned about this and the need to make things easier here.”
The past two weeks were dominated by the build-up to, and the fallout from, the first round of the presidential elections. Last minute campaigning saw Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) candidate Mohamed Nasheed try his hand at both rapping and speed-dating in order to bolster his support.
The Maldives’ second-ever multi-party democratic presidential election will take place tomorrow (September 7). With the campaigning deadline set at 6:00pm today, party supporters in the tens of thousands were out in full force to make every last second count.