The Supreme Court continued obtaining statements from witnesses produced by the Jumhooree Party (JP) in its case against the Elections Commission (EC), seeking the annulment of the first round election over allegations of voting discrepancies and irregularities.
Shortly before the commencement of the hearings on Tuesday, the Supreme Court informed both the EC and the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) – who had also intervened in the case – that its lawyers had been ejected from the case, for acting in contempt of court.
Following the announcement, the court suspended the hearings for two hours to allow the parties to seek a replacement for the suspended lawyers. However, shortly before the two hour period elapsed, the MDP withdrew from the case citing severe discrepancies in the court.
Lawyer Hussain Siraj appeared on behalf of the Elections Commission, replacing former Attorney General Husnu Suood who promptly signed up as an MDP member.
I have been banned from supreme court. Thanks for all justices.I have decided to join MDP. #KKBK
— Husnu Al Suood (@hsuood) September 24, 2013
During today’s court session, the Chief Justice announced that the hearing would continue to hear the witnesses produced by the JP in support of its allegations against the Elections Commission.
Three witnesses told the court that when they had gone to vote, EC officials present at the polling station had told them that votes had already been cast under their name but once they had complained, the officials allowed them to vote after manually entering their names into a physical voter list present at the station.
The other two witnesses claimed that they had knowledge of underage people voting in the poll. However, among the two witnesses who made the claim, one witness said that he had only heard about it, after rumours began circulating that such a thing happened.
During cross examination the EC’s lawyer Siraj asked if he had anything to substantiate his claims. The witness said he had neither personally checked whether the alleged underage voter had actually voted, or whether he was actually under the age of voting.
The second witness who testified said he had seen an underage person who had voted and told the court that he had personally gone to the person in question and said that the person had an indelible ink mark on his finger.
According to the witness, the underage voter was 17 years of age as per his National Identity Card (NIC) – one year less than the eligible age of voting which is 18 years.
After questioning the witnesses, the Supreme Court requested the Attorney General’s office submit their list of alleged underage voters.
The lawyer representing the Attorney General’s office told the court that it intended to submit the intelligence report from the police, as stated during the last hearing. However, the lawyer said that the Attorney General’s Office would not submit the report if the Supreme Court was going to share the report with other parties in the case.
Meanwhile, the JP lawyers submitted two more additional documents as evidence – one, an official document from the Maldives Police Service detailing the security services provided to the Elections Commission, and the second document a request made by Elections Complaints Bureau which had requested recount of a ballot box during the polling day. JP lawyers alleged that the EC had disregarded the request and had gone on to announce the results of the box.
In concluding today’s hearing, Chief Justice Ahmed Faiz announced that a hearing would be held tomorrow (Wednesday).
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"""However, the lawyer said that the Attorney General’s Office would not submit the report if the Supreme Court was going to share the report with other parties in the case."""
There you go. See how credible a report that is going to turn out to be. They would accept such a report in North Korea or Burma, i.e. a report prepared by "Police intelligence" on a free and fair election seen by everyone in the world.
What's the weight of "Police intelligence" here? Of course, in a normal democracy, that'd be absolutely zero when the Attorney General is so scared it might be seen by the Elections Commission itself who happens to be the target of this report!
The Supreme Court is just going through a charade. The minute Buruma Gasim went there, he knew that his four chums on the bench would help him out. They've already granted him one wish. The next is sure to follow as night follows day! 100% guaranteed, no matter what the evidence is.
We all thought that despite a solidly corrupt judiciary and a coup aided and abetted by them, we could back democracy on track, by letting the people decide. We were wrong. These men have a lot to lose, so they are fighting to save their lives. Democracy stands in their way.
Quiz: How many jackasses does it take to derail democracy?
Answer: Four.
Is his he best they have got?? Is his enough to derail democracy and keep the brutal dictatorship in place!!!L!
Go fly a kite with MDP. We told you in public that we shall not relinquish power even if this pest Nasheed wins. Are you stupid lot deaf? As long as we have the judges on our side we will do what we need to do.
Gasim is an ignorant puppet fart.
Yamin is a hyena and a wolf mixed breed.
Nasheed will win this election with over 65% votes next round.
Brrrrrr... The camels with donkey-beards and voices would feel the chills now! They will all be deported to Afghanistan soon.
Our Special Forces have infiltrated the Sopreme Curt and planted a wiretap - and we have found out that the 'witnesses' are STDs from Ali Hameed's body.
This guy was the first attorney General during Nasheed regime and the guy going back to them is no surprise.
Andrew Andreas,
That ignorant puppet fart Qasim came to Male' as an errand boy to work in Endhirimaage and today have become a tycoon. So by calling him ignorant I can judge your intelligence. You call him corrupt, power hungry and selfish , then I shall say hmmm you have a point there. Tell me he is crying sour grapes I ll say you are right. But ignorant is the last thing tha man is. May be boisterous and very swollen headed.
@Nissan Manik
"Go fly a kite with MDP. We told you in public that we shall not relinquish power even if this pest Nasheed wins. Are you stupid lot deaf? As long as we have the judges on our side we will do what we need to do."
we know, just like you celebrate the mutinous police as heroes. just like you make songs about the coup and sing it out loud as if you won a war.
we know you will do anything to keep justice from prevailing. look at the conditions of you judges, half of them has corruption charges against them, one has a video of him in the nude banging a white chick. but still the boy who kissed a girl gets sentenced for 4 months.
to hell with you people. you are ripping this country apart and you are not ashamed of admitting it.
and we know the moment Anni gets elected you will start with your coup 2.0. use islam as a weapon to brainwash the masses and bring about violence and unrest in the Maldives.
yeah we know how you people will act, thats the reason why we will not give up and make sure Anni is elected so that he can deal with the infestation of corrupt political cockroaches in this country.
and even that is an insult to cockroaches. so excuse me.
May we all suffer when any one of us suffers. May we become strong enough to allow the energy of our suffering to make our inner flame for justice become bigger – and bigger – the greater our suffering – the greater the flame – until finally the flame is so great that we can burn the injustice away.
Why did they not report to EC. Gasim a campaign koh dheneema kutuvan vegen dhoa.