Candidates of the former ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) and government-aligned Jumhoree Party (JP) won by-elections yesterday for vacant seats in the island councils of Alif Dhaal Hagnameedhoo and Alif Alif Mathiveri.
JP and MDP candidates went head to head in both by-elections, which were not contested by other parties or independent candidates. While MDP candidate Ahmed Firaq won in Hagnameedhoo, JP candidate Ali Riza Mohamed emerged victorious in Mathiveri.
In Hagnameedhoo, Firaq won with 190 votes (52 percent) against JP contender Ibrahim Naseer Adam, who received 178 votes (48 percent).
JP’s Riza meanwhile won the Mathiveri council seat with 250 votes (54 percent) while MDP candidate Ali Risham came second with 212 votes (46 percent).
Following the victories, leaders of both parties congratulated the winning candidates. JP President Dr Ibrahim Didi expressed confidence in winning future elections and praised the party’s “strong” leadership as the main reason for the success.
MDP Chairperson ‘Reeko’ Moosa Manik congratulated MDP’s winning candidate Firaq and expressed gratitude to Hagnaameedhoo islanders as well as the party members who worked in the campaign.
Yesterday’s result showed that “the people of Hagnameedhoo are opposed to the coup, have political foresight and make decisions wisely,” the Hulhu-Henveiru MP said.
Noting that MDP only received nine votes from Hagnameedhoo in the first round of the presidential election in 2008, Moosa said yesterday’s results represented the party’s growing strength and support.
The Mathiveri island council seat was vacated in November 2011 after a councillor elected on a Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) ticket quit the party. Under the Decentralisation Act, councillors who leave their party are stripped of their seats. The Hagnameedhoo seat was vacated after a councillor resigned due to poor health.
In the February 2011 council elections, four independent candidates and one JP candidate were elected for the five-member Hagnameedhoo island council while four DRP candidates and one MDP candidate were elected to the Mathiveri island council.
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Money politics continues to be the name of the game while the Elections Commission is incapable of addressing this vital issue.
A lot of money changes hands during elections that often go unnoticed or ignored.
Political party financing and campaign financing is highly unregulated and even the sparse legislation is often poorly implemented.
There are no ceilings set for donations from a single individual allowing political parties to become subject to the whims and fancies of an individual or a cadre of individuals representing one single interest.
With the MDP's recent purge, it too has become, similar to other political parties, a one-man-show of sorts.
An audit of expenditure is not enough. Political parties must furnish the Elections Commission with details from where they get their funding. Or else we run the risk of allowing the entrenchment of political parties that may even be financed by the head of a criminal organization.
Any such talk of course falls on deaf ears. We are only interested in imposing our chosen leader upon the rest of the nation through street demonstrations or extravagant displays of power funded by the public treasury.
Until and unless a stronger Political Parties Act and clearer regulations on campaign funding and political party financing are passed through Parliament and enforced by a credible regulatory body, there is no reason to believe that political parties in this country will remain committed to democracy in the form preached by the UN/Western governments.
@tsk tsk; That is an extremely valid point, I agree, one zillion percent, institutions of financial accountability must be established, yet who in power would support such, when the MOST powerful seem to depend on bribery for support and power - unless they felt they had absolute power, which... seems elusive???
Do you think that those who engage in bribery (it SEEMS to be the norm amongst the more powerful political/business interests on both sides IF the accusations on both sides have any validity) would not bribe if they felt that it was possible to win power without doing so?
I read a left wing realist (I am using the term realist in its political sense not in its philosophical sense) by the name of Saul Alinsky who argued that you can't achieve the end objective of social justice utilizing strictly moral ends.
Does the end ever justify the means?
Contrary to Alinsky, I believe that, if we don't achieve objectives through moral means, we will never maintain our objectives even if they are realized.
We both know that being "good" is not that simple in the real world, the reality on the ground is a million times tougher and more painful than what we are taught in a short course on ethical dilemmas. To be honest, and to stick to moral beliefs, requires greater struggle, self sacrifice and endurance than what most humans are capable of.
We need to learn to fight with ourselves, we need to do that, and hopefully, inspire others through our own efforts, we need to learn to win ppl over through means other than money. WE need to learn to buy their hearts, hearts cannot be bought with all the wealth on Earth, only courage, humanity, and capacity for endurance in the face of great turmoil can win hearts. When enough step up to THAt mark, bribery will not work as much and the powerful will begin institution building to curb bribery.
I saw a guy driving the Vilinghili ferry, leaving Villinghilli. Some drugged Indians got on board, and began to abuse the driver when they realized he was not going to the airport.
They threw hundreds of thousands of dollars at him, take us to the airport!! They screamed!!!
The driver ignored them even though, there were only one or two others on the ferry, many would have taken the money and just turned towards Hullumale!
I want that ferry driver for my President!