Tag: election

Maldivian government at best an inept bystander, at worst a willing collaborator: The Hindu

In forcing the cancellation of the presidential polls a second time, the Maldives government has proved to be at best an inept bystander and at worst a willing collaborator, reads today’s editorial in Indian newspaper The Hindu.

The Waheed administration has not only prevented the Maldivian people from exercising their franchise, but also stands in direct contempt of the original Supreme Court order that required elections to be held before October 20.

Strangely, even the Court did not deem it fit to take cognisance of the blatant flouting of its order by the executive, the very arm tasked with administering the polls. It is impossible to miss the pattern: there were no major complaints of voter list tampering till the results came out on the night of September 7; the first complainant who approached the Court was a trailing candidate Qasim Ibrahim, who is a member of the powerful Judicial Services Commission.

Based on questionable evidence, the Supreme Court annulled the polls and ordered fresh elections. It also set clear guidelines, one of which related to approval of electoral rolls by the candidates. This effectively gave candidates the right to veto the polls.

President Mohamed Waheed — sworn in under controversial circumstances after Mohamed Nasheed resigned on February 7, 2012 — cannot abdicate responsibility for the Maldivian Police Service forcibly blocking Election Commission personnel from moving out poll-related material on the morning of October 19, when the elections were scheduled.

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Police ask HRCM to substantiate claims of malpractice regarding role in delayed vote

The Maldives Police Service has requested that the Human Rights Commission of Maldives (HRCM) substantiate its claims that police exceeded their mandate during the delaying of the presidential election on October 19.

The scheduled poll failed to go ahead after police informed the Elections Commission that it would not support the election. The commission reported that police officers had informed them no document related to the election could leave their offices.

Maldives ‘police life’ website reported that the statement claims “actions of the Police on the 19th of October were based on the Constitution of the Republic of Maldives and the Supreme Court verdict, SC-C/42/2013, along with ensuring the rights of every individual who can vote”.

“The document goes on to state that the Maldives Police Service had prepared in advance for the election on the 19th with Officers being sent to the atolls on the 18th, being sent abroad as per the instructions of the Elections Commission and with separate Officers being sent with the voting list and vote slips being transported by air,” read the police website.

On the day scheduled for the vote. the HRCM released a statement arguing that the police service had “acted outside of their mandate in obstructing elections.”

“Point one of the Supreme Court’s 16 point guideline orders all institutions to provide cooperation to hold an election before October 20th. And yet, today Police had obstructed EC and brought the election to a halt. Even if there are concerns, the Elections Commission is the authority mandated by the Constitution of Maldives to stop an election if there is a need for it,” the HRCM continued.

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Five arrested for obstruction, as police clear sit down protests

Police have arrested five men for allegedly obstructing police while they were trying to open to the roads closed by Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) supporters in protest over the cancellation of presidential elections by police on Saturday.

In a statement police said they had opened all the roads that were closed by the MDP.

Police said that they had previously warned people who closed the roads to refrain from acting in a way that would disrupt transportation and people who walked on the roads.

Police noted that in some of the areas people were cooperative and removed the things they had used to block the roads after being warned.

However, police said people gathered on Majeedhee Magu in between Alikileygefaanu Magu and Chandhanee Magu did not listen to police warnings to open the roads, and that they had to forcibly open the road.

Two of the five were arrested on charges of obstructing police duty and objecting to police order, while another was arrested for hitting a police officer with a stone. Another was arrested for threatening police.

According to police, the officer who was hit by a stone was admitted to the hospital after receiving injuries to his leg. He has since been discharged.

MDP protesters started gathering on Majeedhee Magu near the Male’ City Hall building after the second attempt by the Elections Commission (EC) to hold presidential elections was obstructed by police on Saturday.

The first round of the presidential election, held on 7 September, was invalidated by the Supreme Court based on a report made by the police. The was filed submitted by the JP, with the court subsequently ordering that the first round be re-held before October 20.

With the ruling, the court also issued a guideline consisting of 19 points which the EC was obliged to comply with. The guidelines require the EC to obtain the signatures from all the candidates to ensure that they do not have any issues with the voter registration list.

While the EC was making the final preparations to hold the elections for the second time on October 19, the government aligned political parties refused to sign the voter lists as required by new Supreme Court guidelines.

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Elections Commissioner slams Supreme Court, police, PPM, JP over annulment of first round

Elections Commission President Fuwad Thowfeek has criticised the Supreme Court, the government, the police, Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM) and the Jumhooree Party (JP) over the annulment of the first round of presidential elections held on September 7, the Supreme Court’s 16 guidelines for a revote and halt of the elections hours before the polls were due to open on Saturday morning.

Speaking on the Maldives Broadcasting Corporation’s (MBC) Raajje Miadhu (Maldives Today) program, Thowfeek said the Supreme Court annulled the first round of elections based on non credible and “bizarre” evidence. Thowfeek described the Supreme Court’s 16 guidelines as “restrictions” and called for a return to the time periods and tasks outlined in the Constitution and elections laws when a revote is held again.

President Mohamed Waheed Hassan has asked for an election on October 26, but Thowfeek said such a date was “impossible.” The Elections Commission is now considering either November 2 or 9 as dates for a new election.

“We agree we can hold elections on November 9. We believe it is important to see if we can hold an election on November 2. Because then, we can hold a second round by November 9,” Thowfeek said.

“We will do all we can to hold a presidential election. A presidential election needs to be held for the nation’s future to become clear. We need and appeal for the support of all political parties, citizens and government institutions to hold a new election,” Thowfeek added.

Below are excerpts from the interview:

Possibility of an election on October 26

“Not possible. Not possible. Everything one wants to do is not possible to do. If they had been wiser, we wouldn’t be in this situation today. But this situation is here now. And no doubt, there are parties who have to shoulder responsibility.”

Supreme Court’s annulment of the first round held on September 7:

“The first round was free, fair and transparent. However, in quite bizarre events, the case was submitted to the Supreme Court and the [vote] was annulled. The government and the PPM [Progressive Party of the Maldives] advocated in support of the Jumhoree Party who filed the case.

“The [Supreme Court] annulled the vote on bizarre evidence. For example, a person called Mohamed Waheed Hassan, may have his name on ID card as Mohamed Waheed. When we gave him the right to vote, they counted it as a fraudulent vote. But the ID card number, address, date of birth and photo is the same. About 1900 of these cases were identified. A person called Mariyam Waheeda, may have her name spelled as Maryam on one list and Mariyam on the other. We know it is Mariyam Waheeda. We know it is the same person, the date of birth is exact, the ID card number is the same, photo shows it is the right person. When we give these people the right to vote, [the Supreme Court] has said that is giving the right to vote to a person who doesn’t have the right to vote.

“Similarly, the problem of address, it is quite weird. I could have made my ID card when I was on the Haajaraage registry, but when I change my address to [Thalhamathuge], the ID I have is the previous ID [with a different address]. Even though I am now registered at Thalhamathuge, I still have the same ID card number, same date of birth, same photo. It is very clear it is the same person. We gave the right to vote to these people. And when we did that, [the election] has been annulled. Even if a person who has mismatches in address, if they go to vote with their passport, they can vote [passports do not have addresses on them]. There are over 2800 cases of address mismatches. They invalidated the election based on such evidence, and ordered a revote.

“Everyone knows, anyone who is responsible knows, what the Constitution says, who has jurisdiction over such cases, which court. However, outside of the law, they have submitted the case to the Supreme Court, the Supreme Court accepted the case and annulled the vote. They paved the path to today’s situation. This is very sad. But we need to go forward one way or another.”

Police role in halting elections on October 19

“The government assured us of its full support for a new election. But this assurance is not new. The government has always assured us of its support, and they have provided support [at times]. However, but when we are about to hold the election, we see the election being stopped. This time, it is the police who have stopped the election. It is the people who are supposed to prevent others from obstructing the election, who have obstructed the election today. The police were also ordered to provide protection, security of ballot boxes and papers. The police stopped the election using the excuse that all three candidates did not sign the voter registry. But the Supreme Court verdict does not give the police the authority to oversee that.

“The police refused to provide security. The verdict clearly says the police must accompany the ballot boxes and papers to the polling stations. But last night the police said they will not facilitate the process. If we dispatch the boxes without police cooperation, then the Supreme Court has the space to annul the election [again]. In addition to that, in the morning, when our officials left the office with documents, papers, ballot boxes, they stopped them. [They said elections officials] did not have the permission to leave the Elections Commission. They stopped the election. The police officers told our elections officials they had been ordered to stop anyone from leaving the Elections Commission building with any documents relating to the election. I know if [EC officials] had tried to disobey and leave, [the police] would have obstructed them, physically stopped them. The [EC officials] did not attempt to disobey, but they did ask the police why. And a sergeant there said this is what they had been ordered to do. They did not allow EC officials to leave the building with documents.

“I also believe, holding an election is something we must absolutely do. We must start work again to hold an election. A lot of money has been wasted. Approximately RF 30 million was spent on the annulled first round. For the second round, we spent RF 27 million and that election was forcibly stopped. And now, in this round, approximately over RF 25 million has been spent. I do not know the exact figures. We have to start again. It is a huge expense. We want the certainty, we must get the certainty that this time, when the work is completed, anyone, whether it is the police or anyone else, cannot stop the election. The defense minister has assured us of this. That there will be no obstruction in the upcoming work. But there is a higher authority than [the government], the Supreme Court. If there is a Supreme Court order [to halt elections], it will not be easy to find a solution. And also, most of the time, the Supreme Court issues orders at midnight. And it is not easy for an ordinary person to challenge such an order at that time. Hence, it is not easy to hold an election now. In addition to this, the Supreme Court 16 guidelines delineated in the verdict are restrictions. These are locks, blocks. With those locks, it will be very difficult for us to hold elections. But if we could hold an election according to the Constitution, Elections Laws and Presidential Elections laws, we will be able to hold a free election.”

Government’s role in next election [President Waheed appointed Defense Minister Mohamed Nazim as his representative on holding new elections]

“I do not know what Nazim’s role is. I was informed he is the government’s representative in this. I believe [his role] is to find agreement on the disputes between all the candidates. Some candidates have demands, and if we were to fulfill those demands, it will take more than a month. For example, one of PPM’s demands is to select a random 10 percent of the re-registration forms – note this is not forms with problems, but a random sample, and to verify the fingerprints on these forms. When I asked the Police’s Forensic Department, I was told checking a single fingerprint will take at least 5 minutes. This means in 24 hours of non stop work, only 288 records can be checked, 300 at the most. To check over 7000 forms will take more than 20 days. If we were to do so, there is not enough time before November 11. Even now, we only have 20 days between now and then [November 11].”

On the earliest date for a new election

“The Elections Commission believes it will take us 21 days to hold an election at the earliest. So if we start immediately, November 9 is the earliest date, with a shortened time frame for tasks. The Constitution, Elections Laws give a 60 day period to call an election if the post of President and Vice President are vacant at the same time. In addition to this, even to hold a by election for the local councils, a 45 day period is allocated.

“That period is given to complete all necessary tasks, such as publishing the voter registry, and giving the opportunity to check and revise the registry. Even if we were to say we want to hold a speedy election, not necessarily the best election, then within 21 days, with a lot of hard work, we can do it. However, this time, we did it within 11 days. But in these 11 days, we worked like slaves in Pharaonic times. All day, all night, until we fell over, we worked. When we fell over, we go and sleep for two hours, washed our faces and started work again. That is to achieve the tasks in the Supreme Court’s supreme order. Our staff destroyed themselves working [like that]. But however, ultimately, at the last minute when we were about to dispatch the ballot boxes, the police refused to support us. They made it so that [an election] could not be held. Our staff are disheartened, saddened, concerned, hopeless. It will not be easy to make our staff work like Pharaonic slaves again. Earlier they sacrificed themselves for a national cause. But the police did not accept [our work].”

EC database compromised after SC access to data

“If you were to [meet all the demands of the political parties] it is not possible to hold an election within 21 days. We do have questions over whether our server is being accessed. Our data is being destroyed. With the Supreme Court case, we had to submit a lot of information about our computer systems to the Supreme Court, including many records of logs, technical information, and involve the NCIT [National Center for Information Technology] in it.

Previously, access to the system was very restricted to very few people, not just anybody could access it. But now the system is open. Now we are seeing people accessing and changing our database. No one had the opportunity to access the system in the annulled first round of presidential elections. People are destroying our data. So we cannot give that kind of certainty they [political parties] want, NCIT cannot give that kind of assurance now either. Earlier, they said they could not notice any external access in the annulled first round of election. They have not said anything yet [about the revote]. But I am certain, I know that if they check now, they will find there are ways for people to access the database. Because we see changes that should not take place happening to our data.”

On JP and PPM’s refusal to approve voter registry

“As far as I know, their signature is required to ensure that the voter list present at the polling station has been prepared by the Elections Commission. No matter how much they check, they cannot verify the information of 239,000, people unless they have two to three years. No matter how clever they are they will need at least six months to check and approve the voter registry. We cannot hold an election as they want to. The Maldives will never be able to hold an election according to their demands. So far in the Maldives, elections have not been held the way candidates want. Elections Commission will decide what to do. Elections must proceed on the Elections Commission’s decisions. If medical care were to be given as the patient wants, then what is the use of doctors? I do not believe an election can be held according to their demands.

“We followed the Supreme Court’s guidelines. The only task that was not completed was the signing of the voter registry by the representatives of the PPM and JP candidates. They failed to do what the Supreme Court order ordered them to do. Because of their failure, the police refused to allow the election to proceed. They stopped the election. Because of that, the Maldives is in a dangerous situation. The state is very vulnerable now.

“It is not easy for us to hold an election according to the Supreme Court’s restrictions. Before we hold a new election, we want to check and clarify with the Supreme Court if we have to permanently follow [the guidelines]. The official in charge of the ballot box is not allowed to carry a phone. In no other place in the world, does a Supreme Court make a decision like that.”

Calls for a return to holding elections within constitution and elections laws

“The problem here is that we are acting outside the law. Otherwise, we do not have to ask anything of the candidates. The laws state the time for this task, that task. These time periods have been written in the law and these laws have been ratified. We have to obey them and the candidates have to obey them as well. If we were to discard these laws, then we have to get approval of the candidates or else they will have the opportunity to raise problems and not accept the results. This is what will happen in a next election. But if we were to go back inside the laws, then the time periods have to be obeyed by the Elections Commission, by the state institutions and all candidates.”

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Nasheed calls for Waheed to resign, transitional government to oversee elections under Speaker before Nov 11

Former President Mohamed Nasheed and the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) have called for President Dr Mohamed Waheed to resign, allowing a transitional government under the Speaker of Parliament to oversee elections.

Police yesterday surrounded the Elections Commission in the early hours of the morning and forcibly prevented it from proceeding with the scheduled election, in the apparent absence of explicit orders to do so from either the courts or the executive. Police had previously obstructed run-off elections due to be held on September 28.

Chief Superintendent Abdulla Nawaz told press yesterday that police had “made the decision ourselves” after “seeking advice” from, among others, President Waheed and Attorney General Azima Shukoor. Nawaz did not respond to questions as to whether police had the authority to halt the election, or whether they accepted they were stepping beyond the boundaries of their mandate.

“After we won the first round of elections handsomely on September 7 it became clear to our opponents that they don’t have the support of the people of the country, especially Dr Waheed, who ended up with five percent of the vote,” Nasheed told foreign reporters in Male on Sunday morning.

“We do not now feel it is possible to have an election with Dr Waheed as president, Mohamed Nazim as Defence Minister, and Abdulla Riyaz as the Commissioner of Police,” he said.

“It has become very evident that they have obstructed these elections, and very evident that they are trying to take this country into an unconstitutional void, and then capture long term, unelected military power,” he added.

Asked by reporters whether the MDP would take part in an election without President’s Waheed’s resignation, he confidently replied: “If he doesn’t, you can rest assured that there won’t be an election. They might announce it, but there won’t be an election.”

The government yesterday was pushing the Elections Commission to reschedule a third attempt at elections next week on November 26, however Elections Commissioner Fuwad Thowfeek said it would take at least 21 days to re-register the tens of thousands of voters returning home after the Eid holidays.

Thowfeek did raise the possibility of elections on November 9, just two days before the end of the presidential term on November 11 – the deadline for constitutional and potentially international recognition of the present government’s legitimacy.

“We believe that the only prudent way forward, and possible solution for the situation, is for Dr Waheed to today resign and the Speaker of Parliament to take over government before November 11 and until the election,” said Nasheed.

“We want elections to be held under this [environment], and not under the unelected, unrepresentative rule of Dr Waheed. This is our view. We don’t see any reason why there should be any more negotiation on an election date or any such issue, but rather we feel Dr Waheed should resign, and Abdulla Shahid take over,” Nasheed said.

“We feel this must happen in the next few days as time is running out.”

President Mohamed Waheed raised the prospect of resignation himself in an interview yesterday with The Hindu, stating that while it was not in the interest of the country “to have an election forced on it”, he had no interest in remaining in power beyond November 11.

“I am not comfortable to stay on. It would be my preference that there be an elected President. And it would also be my preference that if this is not possible, then there would be some other arrangement made,” Waheed told The Hindu.

Waheed – who has withdrawn from the election – said he was confident he would be able to convince all candidates to participate by threatening his resignation. If they did not, “I will tell them I will resign, and then, so will the Vice-President. After that, the responsibility will fall on the Speaker [to assume office],” Waheed said.

Speaker Abdulla Shahid told Minivan News: “It’s quite clear from the statements made by the police and executive that they halted yesterday’s scheduled election. The President has to take responsibility for that.”

“The constitution is quite clear on the responsibilities of the Speaker [should the president resign]. As speaker I will always carry out my constitutional duties,” he said.

Protests and international assistance

Sit-down protests that sprang up across Male yesterday following the police obstruction of elections were not planned by the Maldivian Democratic Party, Nasheed said.

“The people came out. It is going to build up. If the MDP doesn’t give leadership to these protests, we will soon see them get out of hand,” Nasheed said.

He dismissed the prospect of the MDP encouraging violent protests, noting that “of the 40-odd struggles for democracy across the world in the last century, only four have succeeded through violence.”

“I think it is very evident that a capacity for violence is not necessarily going to give us the success or democracy that we want. I think the capacity for resilience, and to withhold, will give us better results. We will have that struggle,” he said.

“We will go for direct action and peaceful political activity. We will beg the international community to assist us. We will always request well-wishers to be party in the democratic struggle in the Maldives,” Nasheed added.

Many rank-and-file members of the police and military were supportive of the MDP, if not the democratic process, he observed.

“The rank and file are well with us. There was one ballot box specifically for police and military, in Addu Gan. We got 70 percent in it. The vast majority of the police and military are voting for us,” Nasheed said.

He said the party was not interested in instigating a conflict between the security forces, noting that this would have a “a very serious effect on Indian Ocean stability.”

Nasheed appealed to the international community to step up its assistance with election logistics.

“I don’t think asking for an election to be secure is asking for an invasion or meddling with the internal affairs of the Maldives. We are simply asking for assistance with the logistics of holding an election. If you see this as foreign intervention, then that is a reflection on how xenophobic you yourself are,” Nasheed said.

“The international community have assisted with other logistics such as printing and IT. All in all the US has spent US$3 million, about the same as the Commonwealth, and probably the Indian government. We only asking them to assist the Elections Commission with logistics, and distributing and safeguarding ballot boxes.

“What more honourable request can a country make than asking for help with an election? We are not asking the international community to bomb anyone. We are simply asking them to look after the boxes, and left the people decide what they want,” Nasheed said.

He said he also hoped for “more robust international engagement to make sure that these important transitional arrangements are made. We don’t think we ourselves alone can overcome this.”

“We must isolate Waheed. He was the main instigator of the coup and he got away with toppling an elected government. He has nullified the first round of elections, nullified a very successful second round election, and yesterday nullified a repeat of the first round. The list goes on,” Nasheed said.

The MDP would be meeting on Sunday afternoon to decide on specific action to take, he noted.

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“We should be angry, not disheartened”: Nasheed

At 6:30am ahead of its second press conference on Saturday, the Elections Commission issued a statement advising that police had moved to prevent the election from taking place.

“As we continued with [preparation for] voting, the Maldives Police Services have said no document relating to the election can leave the commission’s offices, stopping the election,” the statement read.

“The Elections Commission has carried out all preparations to hold the first round of the presidential election on 19 October 2013 as per the Supreme Court verdict no 2013/SC-C/42.

“When we are informed of the next date for the election, we will announce the election,” the EC’s statement read.

The police issued an earlier statement at 5:30am stating that they “will not support an election held in contravention of the Supreme Court verdict and guidelines.”

In a letter addressed to EC President Fuwad Thowfeek, police informed him that “when the Supreme Court has ordered state institutions to ensure compliance with [its guidelines], the police will not support an election that contravenes the guidelines delineated in the verdict as such an act contravenes the Supreme Court verdict.”

“We have assured the Elections Commission that if the Supreme Court issues a ruling stating that elections can proceed even if certain tasks in the Supreme Court verdict 2013/SC-C/42 are not completed, then the Maldives Police Services will abide by such a ruling.”

The Elections Commission (EC) at 3:30am on Saturday morning declared the election would proceed as planned, despite the Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM) and Jumhoree Party (JP)’s refusal to sign the voter lists yesterday.

“The PPM and JP failed to [sign the lists]. I believe their failure to do what they should do must not stop the entire system. Just because one person fails to do their duties, refuses to do what they must do, it does not mean everyone else must stop their work, and deprive the Maldivian citizen’s of their right to vote,” Thowfeek stated, at the 3:30am briefing.

Requiring parties to signing off the new voter lists was one of the 16 guidelines imposed on the EC following the Supreme Court’s annulment of the September 7 election. Those guidelines also order the EC to hold the first round before October 20.

The Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) accepted and signed the new lists based on the Department of National Registration (DNR)’s records as per the Supreme Court’s request, noting that the 0.61 percent margin of error was “negligible”.

The JP and PPM could not be contacted immediately following the EC’s deadline to sign the lists on Friday, but subsequently declared unwillingness to sign without first verifying at least 10 percent of the new fingerprinted forms.

After a meeting between the EC, Home Ministry and the parties ended in a stalemate, the PPM and JP requested the Supreme Court delay the election, while the EC sought clarification from the court.

An early morning meeting between the Supreme Court judges present in the country resulted in a brief statement ordering the Elections Commission to abide by its guidelines.

Following the EC’s declaration that elections would be going ahead, the PPM issued a statement declaring the polls “unlawful”.

Minivan News has now ceased updating this news blog.

1:30am: Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM) MP Ahmed Nihan has the party has held “long discussions” on how to proceed with the election, though said it had not put forward a possible date for voting to be held.

“Our only request is that the Elections Commisison (EC) hold a free and fair poll,” he said, adding that it still hoped that some number of those registered be verified through fingerprint identification.

Nihan argued that the PPM had requested that 10 percent of the registry be verified through fingerprint identification, with the JP asking for five percent.

Citing Elections Commissioner Fuwad Thowfeek and the challenges facing holding a vote, he added that it may not be possible to hold a vote by next Saturday (October 26).

“Re-registration has to be followed, there are people who could turn 18 years of age in between vote being held. We are asking for the election to be held as early as possible.
It could be held the day after tomorrow as far as we are concerned,” Nihan said.

Despite expressing that the party wished to hold an election as soon as possible, the PPM MP also said that concerns raised by the EC today of unknown individuals gaining access to the voter registry system also needed to be investigated.

01:00am: Some protesters are sleeping on Sosun Magu, whilst those still awake say they have no plans to leave.

12.25am: The Police Integrity Commission (PIC) has declared that the police had no legal mandate to intervene and stop elections this morning, local media has reported.

PIC Chief Dr Abdulla Waheed said that the commission had received a complaint into the events of this morning, being asked to investigate.

“We won’t take too long to probe the allegations,” he told Haveeru.

He did point out, however, that it was too early to comment on whether the direct responsibility lay with the police. Dr Abdulla noted that the commission could not rely merely on media reports.

12:02am: A police media official has told Minivan News that there had been no arrests made by police either in Male’ or the nearby island of Hulhumale’ as protests have continued throughout the day – with no notable clashes between protesters and its officers at time of press.

Majeedhee Magu has become quieter although some protesters remain.

12:00am Defence Minister Mohamed Nazim told local media that the government had agreed upon a new date for elections with the Elections Commission.

Nazim did not reveal the new date, however, stating that the EC would make the announcement later in the evening.

Meanwhile, EC Chair Fuwad Thowfeek told Haveeru that the election could not be held under the the Supreme Court’s guidelines and that the state must ensure an easier way.

Fuwad revealed that he had been asked by the government to hold elections before November 2, though he told state television this evening that the commission would require 21 days to amend the voter registry once again.

No official EC statement has been released as yet.

11:55pm: Hundreds of people from three islands of Addu Atoll have conducted a sit down in the area connecting Maradhoo and Feydhoo, MDP MP Ahmed Adham told Minivan News.

“After a while, PPM activists we recognise turned up alongside SO officers in full riot gear with shields,” alleged Adham. “The PPM activists started throwing stones and tried to provoke us into reacting. Then SO barged into the crowd and roughed up out protesters.”

Adham stated that six protesters were arrested and a number of others injured as the SO dispersed, though he noticed protests were continuing in multiple locations.

“The people are determined to continue protesting until we are granted our right to vote.”

11:50pm: The Maldives Police Service has urged anyone taking part in demonstrations across the country to show consideration to the wider public when conducting their protests.

“Since impeding on the rights of others while attempting to exercise one’s own constitutional rights is not the most responsible course of action, the Maldives Police Service strongly urges all demonstrators to not conduct themselves in such a way,” read an official statement posted online.

Police said that despite the peaceful manner of demonstrations, protesters should not try to adversely affect transportation either by land or sea.

“The Maldives Police Service also urges the demonstrators to always conduct themselves in ways that conform to the laws and regulations of the nation,” concluded the statement.

11.41pm: At a press conference this evening, the Jumhooree Party (JP) presented conditions for a re-vote and said the party is ready for elections on Saturday, October 26 if conditions are met, local media reports.

JP has demanded that the voter registry be sourced from the Department of National Registration’s (DNR) database and assurance from the National Center for Information Technology (NCIT) that the Elections Commission’s (EC) database is secure before and throughout the voting period.

JP is ready to approve the voter registry within a 24 hour period if the Elections Commission verified five percent of the reregistration forms via the police, allowed a three day period for candidates to raise complaints over the voter registry and addressed the complaints, CNM reported.

If a second round of elections needed to be held, they must be held before November 2 and an elected president must be sworn in at the end of the current presidential term on November 11, the JP said.

11:29pm: Maldives Transport and Contracting Company (MTCC) executive Ismail Fariq has said ferry services between Male’ and Hulhumale’ had resumed at 10:45pm after temporarily being halted due to protests at its terminal on the island.

“The protest has ended. It was a peaceful protest. No damages. No arrests,” he said.

Fariq added that the company’s Hulhumale’ bus service was also expected to “resume shortly” after being suspended for several hours today owing to protests.

11:09pm: President Dr Mohamed Waheed has told media he will not remain in office past the constitutionally mandate end of his term on November 11 – even if an elected head of state is not chosen by the deadline.

Local newspaper Haveeru, citing the Associated Press news agency, said he would not be comfortable staying on as head of state once his term is finished.

“I am not comfortable to stay on. As you know I had to take a very heavy burden in carrying out the responsibilities during the last year and a half. It would be my preference that there be an elected president and it would also be my preference if in case it is not possible, some other arrangement is made,” he was quoted as saying.

President Waheed, who obtained 5.13 percent of the popular vote during the now defunct presidential election held on September 7, announced on October 12 that he would not be standing in the rerun schedule originally scheduled for today.

He then claimed there was “room for doubt” over the integrity and fairness of this year’s polls, before yesterday calling on all parties not to act in a fashion that obstructs holding of the election and to prioritise national interest over personal interest”.

11:00pm: Intermittent but heavy downpours appear not to have affected the numbers of protesters on Majeedhee Magu.

10:35pm: Appearing on state television, Elections Commissioner Fuwad Thowfeek has said that it would take a minimum of 21 days to amend the voter registry once again as voters return from their Eid holidays.

10:00pm: Around 600 protesters on the island of Gan in Laamu atoll are protesting in front of the island’s province offices, explained MDP activist Naeemahtha.

“We’ve padlocked the main gates of this building which has the council offices, bank, and the majority of other service providers in it. We will not budge and do not intend to go home until we are given the right to vote.”

“Police turned up and tried to take away the lorry playing campaign music but protesters wouldn’t give them a chance to do so. They’ve left without the lorry now and the protest is proceeding in full swing.”

9:40pm: Speaking to supporters on Majeedhee Magu shortly before 6:00 pm, Nasheed threatened to arrest President Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan, Defense Minister Mohamed Nazim and Police Commissioner Abdulla Riyaz. He called on his supporters to continue to block Majeedhee Magu and shut down the city of Malé.

Unless we are able to carry out peaceful political activities, we cannot bring the change we wish to the Maldives. There has been a coup in the Maldives, and the coup backers, in order to maintain that coup, are committing bigger and bigger atrocities day after day. They overthrew an elected government through a coup. More than 18 months have passed since the coup. And when we asked for an election, when the election’s results became clear, they annulled the election and now are attempting to make sure an election does not take place.

This is 2013. Maldivian citizens are not apathetic and we will not let them get away with this. I repeat, I repeat, I will not get tired. I will not go home. When I fall, I will get up even faster, God willing, we will change the Maldives.

I assure you, we will not step back. They can beat us. They can arrest us, but this ideology cannot be erased. We will establish good governance in the Maldives.

There is no need to plan this. I call on every single citizen, as much as you can, do everything you can to arrest baagee [traitor] Mohamed Waheed Hassan. I will not speak about an election unless Baagee Mohamed Waheed and Baagee Mohamed Nazim and Baagee Riyaz are arrested. We can only hold a free and fair election in the Maldives when Baagee Mohamed Waheed is removed from power. I will do as much as possible to oust Baagee Mohamed Waheed. I will not stop, I will remain steadfast. My hope, my sincere appeal to all Maldivian citizens is to do all we can to remove Baagee Mohamed Waheed from power, to arrest him and jail him.

I say to Baagee Mohamed Waheed, God willing, I have more time than you do. Death is that which is closest to each and every one of us. And death is that which is the farthest from each and every one of us. I will do all I can to bring you down, to bring you to down to these Malé streets. Know very clearly, who we are. Know very clearly, where we grew up. We will not let go. We will not let go. We will not stay in our houses. We will not stop. We will not step back. We will go forward. We will go forward, with strength, with speed. We will win this election. We will change this coup government.

I call on you to block these streets. If Henveiru kids can do it, shut down Henveiru. Galholu will do it, Machangoalhi will try, Maafannu will try, let us shut down Malé. Malé cannot function, we must succeed.

Thank you. Do not worry. Be angry. Do not be disheartened. Melancholia lowers your spirits. Anger makes you determined, makes you act. We should be angry at this moment. This is not the time for melancholia. This is not the time to step back. This is the time to go forward. To come out and overthrow Baagee Mohamed Waheed. God willing, we will accomplish this task.

9:25pm: Minivan News has learned that all food being booked for the protesters up and down Majeedhee Magu has been donated by local shopkeepers and residents.

Protesters have named the hotdogs being served ‘Ali Hameed sausages’ in reference to the Supreme Court who has been the subject of investigations for his alleged role in a series of sex-tapes.

One protester, aged 28, shared her distress at the election delay with Minivan News:

“I’m lost, I don’t think we can trust these coup leaders – this is such a mess.”

9:18pm: Mohamed Haisham, a protester gathered at the Hulhumale’ ferry terminal this evening, has said that boat services from the island had been brought to a stop as part of ongoing peaceful action planned until a new election date is agreed.

Haisham said that around 200 people had gathered at the terminal this evening in order to bring internal transport to a stop in order to raise concerns over the delay to elections.

He claimed that a large majority of those protesting at the terminal and main roads across the island were young people aged between 18 and 35.

Haisham added that police had meanwhile been “very cooperative” with the ongoing protests.

“The police don’t have control here. They have agreed to let us protest as long as we don’t damage property,” he said.

Protesters this evening said they intended to continue their actions tomorrow (October 20) morning as part of efforts to try and shut down government offices.

9:05pm: The MDP’s peaceful protests continue along Majeedhee Magu, with groups still blocking the road’s major intersections. Small groups are sitting, playing cards, smoking sheesha, and cooking food. Live music is expected to start shortly.

9:00pm:

8:55pm: The Indian Ministry of External Affairs released a statement earlier today, expressing its disappointment that the election was not held as scheduled today.

India and the international community have been closely watching the developments in Maldives and are seriously concerned at the attempts to stall the democratic process. It is for the people of Maldives to decide their future, and their strong desire to elect a new president is evident from theturnout of 88% in the first round of elections held on September 7, 2013, which was considered free and fair by the large contingent of international and domestic observers present. Keeping in mind the wishes and aspirations of the people of Maldives, who have so far shown admirable patience and restraint, it is important that the electoral process is put back on track immediately with a definite timeline so that a new president is elected and sworn in on November 11, 2013 as mandated by the constitution. India calls upon the Government of Maldives and all parties concerned to fulfiltheir responsibility towards the people of Maldives by playing a constructive role in the elections process and fully assisting the Elections Commission in holding the Presidential elections without further delay.India also calls upon all parties to abjure violence and maintain calm.

8:46pm: Police have confirmed that officers are present at the Hulhumale’ ferry terminal where protests are ongoing. A police media official said no arrests had been made at the terminal, with protests continuing peacefully at present. Ferry operator the MTCC has meanwhile confirmed that it will discontinuing boat services to Male’ form the island this evening as a result of protests.
8:20pm: Speaking on local television a short time ago, Male’ City Council stated that it would stop services until the people’s “fundamental right to vote, a right we get every five years” is assured. Male’ City Mayor ‘Maizan’ Ali Manik said that, whilst mosques would be looked after, services such as waste management, issuing building and birth certificates would be stopped.

The council’s declaration – supported by eight of its 11 members – condemned the delay in the election and supported the MDP’s ongoing protests on the streets of Male’.

“I am telling you our council will not function until we have a date for an election and the election is conducted,” said Manik.

8:15pm: Maldives Transport and Contracting Company (MTCC) executive Ismail Fariq said that protesters had begun to gather near to the ferry terminal building on Hulhumale’, but services were continuing at present. The company added that it discontinued its bus services on Hulhumale’ earlier due to a situation it said was not accommodating to operate under.

8:11pm: Maldives Transport and Contracting Company (MTCC) executive Ismail Fariq has said that the company was aware of proposals for strike action this evening on some of its ferry services between Male’ and the islands of Hulhumale’ and Villimale’. However, Fariq said he did not believe there would be any service interruptions or cancellations at present. “We don’t know how the situation will unfold. We will not compromise any loss to our assets or staff,” he said.

The MTCC also operates a high speed boat service to Ibrahim Nasir International Airport (INIA), but does not operate standard ferries.

7:55pm: Secretary General of the Tourism Employees Association of the Maldives (TEAM) Mauroof Zakir has said no decision has so far been taken by its members to hold imminent strikes on any of the country’s resort properties. He said that TEAM had been receiving calls from its members expressing an interest in holding “peaceful gatherings” at resorts to highlight concerns over delays to the election. T

EAM last month announced it had committed its 5000 members to “prolonged” strike action should the election be delayed.

7:52pm: Elections Commissioner Fuwad Thowfeek and EC Deputy Ahmed Fayaz have met President Mohamed Waheed, Acting Home Minister Ahmed Shafeeu, Attorney General Azima Shukoor and Defence Minister Mohamed Nazim.

Thowfeek confirmed to Minivan News that Nazim had been appointed the government’s focal point for anything election-related. The Elections officials were pressed during the meeting to give a date for another attempt at the election, but said they would need to discuss this with the other EC members. EC members will be holding a meeting at 8:00pm to decide how to proceed.

7:06pm: MDP supporters are calling friends and telling them to come to Majeedhee Magu with food tonight, to participate in the ongoing sit-down protest in the capital.

7:00pm: Hulhumalé resident Mohamed Haisham has said protesters have blocked the road to the airport and main streets in Hulhumale, preventing buses from travelling.

6:53pm: The Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) has confirmed the appointment of Defence Minister Mohamed Nazim as the government’s representative to the Elections Commission (EC), but has said denied the military will be taking a direct role in the electoral process.

MNDF Spokesperson Colonel Abdul Raheem confirmed that the military would not be taking an any additional role concerning the functioning of the EC. Defence Minister Nazim was not responding to requests for information at time of press.

6:09pm: Police have confirmed that they had consulted both the President’s Office and Attorney General Azima Shukoor ahead of taking their decision to physically obstruct polling scheduled for this morning. A police media official confirmed that no consultation was held with the Prosecutor General’s Office on whether to cancel polling. Several legal experts including senior figures serving under both the current and present governments have told Minivan News today that the Maldives Police Service had no legal mandate to prevent elections from happening today in the absence of a direct court order. Meanwhile, the Commonwealth Observer Group here to oversee election conduct earlier today issued a statement distancing itself from comments made by police alleging it had provided advice on delaying polls. Police also retracted the claim.

5:52pm: Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma had said he is “extremely concerned by the further stalling of the democratic process in Maldives, following the stopping this morning of the scheduled 19 October presidential election.” The latest development follows the postponement by the Maldivian Supreme Court of the second round of the election scheduled for 28 September and the subsequent annulment of the 7 September first round election. The Secretary-General noted that the continuing delay was “of deep concern, given that the term of the current government will expire on 11 November 2013.” Mr Sharma said:

“I cannot stress firmly enough how critical it is for all state institutions and presidential candidates to cooperate in good faith to ensure that this election can take place as soon as possible. It is essential that the independent Elections Commission is able to conduct an election, consistent with international electoral standards, without any unnecessary delay. “The people of Maldives have already demonstrated, on 7 September, their strong desire to cast their votes and express their collective will. It is the moral responsibility of political leaders and those who hold positions of authority to ensure that the Maldivian people can exercise their fundamental constitutional right to elect their president.”

The Secretary-General said he would continue to monitor developments very closely in the coming days, given the fundamental importance of democratic values to the Commonwealth.

5:48pm: Haveeru reports that Defence Minister Mohamed Nazim has been appointed the government’s representative for the elections. Nazim reportedly said he had negotiated a date with the Elections Commission to hold polls and was inviting presidential candidates to meet him this evening. “The Elections commission will announce a date later tonight,” Nazim said. Minivan News is seeking to confirm this with the Elections Commission.

5:40pm: The NGO Federation has issued a statement “condemning in strongest terms” the actions of police preventing the elections from taking place as scheduled.

The NGO Federation in strongest terms condemns the actions of the Maldives Police Services to prevent the efforts made by the Elections Commission – the state institution constitutionally mandated to hold and organise elections – to hold the rerun of first round presidential election on October 19, by not cooperating with the commission and obstructing them without any court order. We call on the Head of State, President Mohamed Waheed Hassan and all state institutions to immediately assist in creating an environment that would pave way for the Elections Commission to operate independently and autonomously. We also appreciate and acknowledge the hard work and sacrifices made by the members and staff of Elections Commission to ensure the right of the people to freely cast their vote, and encourage the commission to remain determined in its continued efforts to hold free and fair elections. As the article 4 of the Maldivian Constitution explicitly states that all powers of the state are derived from the people and remain with the people, we call upon all political figures of the country who have been obstructing and preventing the people from rightly electing their ruler to immediately stop their actions, and act in a responsible manner and to respect the democratic principles adopted by the people of Maldives. We call on the Prosecutor General, the Chief Justice and all relevant authorities to uphold the law and take action against those who are responsible for depriving the people of their most fundamental right of right freely cast their vote guaranteed by the constitution, and those responsible for undermining the power and the authority of Elections Commission vested under the Elections Commission Act and General Elections Act.

5:30pm:Police attempts to drive through the intersection failed after near 10 minutes after protesters surrounded the vehicle, forcing it to back up and detour. “You can’t have your way all the time, baghees (traitors),” said one protester.

“This is my country too. Ride over us if you dare, or back away,” said another. “You trampled our votes. Let ‘s see if you’ll dare run over us,” said a third.

5:33pm: DRP MP Ali Azim at the sit down protest urged the public: “Don’t go out to work. Call your family and friends, tell them to stop work.” Meanwhile, a barbecue appears to be underway in the intersection.

5:27pm: A 34 year-old man at the sit down protest said: “We sitting in joles (traditional Maldivian seat) and blocking the road as there are no more rules according to the police. We can do anything we want now according to them.” A 29 year-old protester added sarcastically, “We are all gathering here because the Commonwealth told us to.”

5:24pm: Small numbers of people are obstructing nearly every junction on the main road of Majeedhee Magu, with tables, vehicles and tarpaulins with people sitting. The majority remain concentrated near city hall.

5:15pm: 33 year-old artist Ahmed Khalid at the sit down protested said: “I am embarrassed by the Supreme Court. The police are in control of this country. This is a coup. We want the Majlis members to get us our right to vote. There is no hope, but we will keep trying.”

5:00pm: Male is becoming difficult to travel around with police and military blocking are area around Republic Square, Supreme Court and the President’s Office, while the MDP blocks a key junction on the main road Majeedhee Magu. Protesters have cordoned off the streets with human chains, yellow cords, vehicles including motor bikes and trucks. Protesters are slowly blocking more junctions, in an apparent attempt to close down all of Majeedhee Magu.

4:40pm: Smaller crowd on Sosun Magu – around 40 people – staging similar sit-down protest blocking traffic. Signs held my protesters read ‘Where is the voice of the citizens?’, ‘Yameen is a bodu gunda [‘big thug’]’, and ‘hurry up the election’.

4:20pm: Crowd on Majeedhee Magu, now thousands strong, is said to be growing by the minute.

4:10pm: Supporters of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) have begun to gather on Majeedhee Magu – Male’s main thoroughfare. After laying down tarpaulins, people have begun to set up tables and chairs in the middle of the street. Whilst some are playing cards, presidential candidate Mohamed Nasheed and Speaker of the Majlis Abdulla Shahid sat sipping tea and eating hedika.

3:40pm: President Dr Mohamed Waheed has asked for presidential elections to be held on Saturday 26 October 2013. The President’s Office has said Waheed is concerned about the delay in holding election as planned. The President’s Office has also said the President wants a free and peaceful election with the participation of all candidates. “The President calls on the Elections Commission to hold discussions with all candidates to find a way to hold the presidential election on Saturday, October 26. The President urges all candidates and their political parties to find a solution to election disputes,” read the statement.

3:30pm: The Police Integrity Commission has commenced an investigation into police obstruction of polls. Speaking to local media CNM, PIC President Dr Abdulla Waheed said he believed if the police did indeed obstruct polls, then it was outside their mandate. However, he could only speak further after an investigation. The EC had released a statement this morning accusing police of overstepping their mandate and unlawfully halting the first round of presidential polls. The EC urged an investigation into “the unlawful use of police powers and acting in contravention to the spirit and purpose of police laws.”

3:20pm: Speaker of the House Abdulla Shahid has released a statement to the media.

While article 26 in chapter two of the constitution very clearly states that it is the right of every citizen of the Maldives 18 years of age or older to vote in elections and run for public office, article 18 of the constitution definitively states that it is the duty of the state to protect and promote the rights and freedoms provided in chapter two of the constitution. And, article 170 of the constitution entrusts the Elections Commission with the responsibility to hold and declare the results of elections within periods prescribed by law, to conduct, manage and supervise elections, to ensure the proper exercise of the right to vote, and to ensure that all elections and public referendums are conducted freely and fairly, without intimidation, aggression, undue influence or corruption. I believe what occurred today, Saturday, 19 October 2013, deprived citizens of the fundamental rights guaranteed by the constitution of the Republic of Maldives. And I condemn the actions of police outside the bounds delineated in the constitution and the law on orders from the heads of the Maldives Police Service. Therefore, I call upon the Elections Commission to decide upon and announce a date for the election forthwith and proceed with performing the responsibility entrusted by the constitution of the Republic of Maldives for a president directly elected by the people to assume the office of the presidency on 11 November 2013.

3:10pm: MDP have released a statement:

“We have decided to cancel the National Executive Committee meeting scheduled today and call on all NEC representatives to do everything necessary to to establish a lawful government and elect a president to represent the people. We believe every citizen of the Maldives must work to establish an elected government following the Supreme Court’s unconstitutional annulment of the first round of presidential elections held on 7 September 2013, and the Supreme Court’s unconstitutional infringement on the independent Elections Commissions powers by delineating how an election must proceed, and the Maldives Police Services unconstitutional abuse of their powers to invalidate and halt the much awaited presidential election for a second time. Today is a sad day for democracy in the Maldives with the violation of a fundamental right of governance, especially as all powers of the Maldives Constitution derive from the citizens of the Maldives, Elections are the most fundamental right enshrined in the constitution. As Maldivian citizens have been deprived of this right, we call on all Maldivian citizens to commence protests to obtain this right.”

2:40pm: Around 30 protesters, gathered outside of the People’s Majlis, refused to move when asked to by police. “Who made you the voice of authority to decide all we do? You can’t tell us where to sit,” protesters told the police. “You stole our vote, we won’t let you take away everything else including our freedom”. “I am here to ask for our constitutional right to vote,” said Hassan Shah in his early thirties, refusing to budge as a policeman prods him from behind asking him to leave the area. “This country is ridiculous. There is no rule of law, there is nothing but tyranny: by the police, by an unelected coup president, by the corrupt judiciary and every other principleless person or institute. Its time we refused to budge. I want my right to vote,” said Ahmed Amir, 29.

2:35pm: The MDP have cancelled the scheduled meeting of their National Council. They had been due to meet at 2:30pm.

2:30pm: Statement released by the UK Foreign Secretary William Hague:

I am deeply dismayed by further delays in the Maldives Presidential elections. It is vital that the democratic process is allowed to proceed and that a new President is inaugurated by 11 November in line with the Maldives Constitution. I strongly urge that the Election Commission be permitted to carry out the presidential election at the earliest possible date so that constitutional requirements may be met. With the eyes of the world on the Maldives, I call on all parties to respect democratic values, and to allow transparent, free and fair elections to proceed without further delay. Elections which reflect the will of the people can help to build a more stable Maldives for the future. It is clear from the extremely high turnout seen on 7 September that the Maldives people are fully engaged in the process, and their voices should be heard through the ballot box. Continuing challenges to prevent elections taking place will be seen as nothing less than an attempt to frustrate the democratic process. This would undermine democracy, create greater uncertainty, further instability and damage the Maldives economy and international reputation. Together with fellow Commonwealth member states, the EU and the wider international community, Britain continues to monitor developments in the Maldives very closely. We remain committed to supporting the Maldivian people to work towards strengthening democratic processes and values.

1:57pm: Mohamed Shafaz Wajeeh, an Attorney-at-Law for the Maldives-based Praxis Law Firm, today stressed that police could only be mandated to take action to prevent an election under a direct court order. Police today confirmed that it took the decision on its own initiative after consultations with state authorities. Shafaz took the example of a dispute where a court orders that a tenant be evicted from a property for not paying rent as agreed to a landlord. He argued that in a case where a tenant still refused to move from a property after the eviction notice is ordered, police would not be able to intervene until given a direct court order to do so. According to Shifaz, while police noted that the Supreme Court’s 16 point guideline did require that representatives of all three contesting candidates sign the amended voter registry before polling, no order or role has been so far provided to police to prevent voting today. “It is constitutionally guaranteed that a person or body is not prevented from performing the duties they are charged with unless mandated by a court,” he said.

1:50pm: Transparency Maldives has issued a press release expressing concern over the additional delay of polls, as well as the failure to set a new date for elections. “While the Constitutional deadlines for conducting the election have already been breached, we urge setting a new date immediately to ensure there is a democratically elected President by November 11, 2013.”

Highlighting the separation of powers inherent in the constitution, Transparency has called upon all actors to refrain from obstructing the Elections Commission’s independence and mandate.

“Transparency Maldives reiterates that its extensive and systematic observation of the September 7 elections found no evidence of systematic fraud and no such evidence has so far been made public,” continued the statement. “Transparency Maldives also believes that for long-term national interest and democratic consolidation, the Presidential Election must ensure the participation of all political actors and parties,” the release concluded.

1:45pm: HRCM Member Jeehan Mamdhooh added that the police in a democratic system are only allowed to assist in election related matters to the extent and in the manner requested by the EC. “The SC’s 16 point guideline clearly mentions in each separate point if the involvement of any institution besides the EC is needed for that specific task. Point number 5 [about the candidates signatures on the voter list] which the police stated as their justification today, does not ask for the involvement of any institution besides the EC in this task,” Jeehan stated.

“It is for a reason that police are given such a narrow role in the electoral proceedings of a democratic system. They are under the authority of some branch of the state, which brings down the confidence of their involvement not compromising the independence of the electoral process. For example, they are directly under the executive in the Maldives,” she continued.

“Point one of the Supreme Court’s 16 point guideline orders all institutions to provide cooperation to hold an election before October 20th. And yet, today Police had obstructed EC and brought the election to a halt. Even if there are concerns, the Elections Commission is the authority mandated by the Constitution of Maldives to stop an election if there is a need for it”.

“HRCM does not believe that the police have any mandate to interfere with the electoral process in this manner, and feel they have acted outside of their mandate in obstructing elections”.

1:40pm: “The SC guidelines do not give the police any space to act against democratic norms. Yes, the right to vote must be ensured for all citizens and we are too are working to achieve this. However, using this as a justification, police cannot obstruct the work of the EC. All us institutions must work within our margins. We cannot accept the police’s actions to halt elections,” continued HRCM Vice President Ahmed Tholal.

“I agree that there are some limitations faced after the SC regulations were issued. It didn’t provide much time for election preparation, which cut down the time that can be assigned for list verification. What I am saying is however, that there is a major difference between candidates or their representatives raising concerns about this matter, and the police forcing elections to be brought to a halt.”

“If the police were concerned as they predicted unrest in the country, they had the option of strengthening security operations. Hypothetically, if police think any certain court verdict may cause discord or disagreement in public, can they go in to court and order the verdict to be changed as they see fit? No. Similarly, the constitution does not allow them to inhibit the holding of an election”.

1:30pm: The Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM) has condemned the Maldives Police Services actions to obstruct the Elections Commission from conducting presidential elections on Saturday, stating that police were acting outside their mandate. In a live appearance on state TV on Saturday afternoon, HRCM Vice President Ahmed Tholal stated, “With this act, they have undermined people’s right to vote. In a democratic system, obstructing the right to vote, especially when done by the police, sets a dangerous precedent”. “The Supreme Court’s guideline is in alignment with the Constitution and laws. I do not believe the Police has any authority to halt election, not even under this guideline. If, as the police say, the concern is that holding elections may cause some form of unrest in the country, it is again the EC’s responsibility to consider that,” Tholal said. “I accept that there are concerns. The HRCM have also received just over 300 complaints regarding reregistration which we are looking into it. It is within the democratic system for the EC to be mandated to look into this, and for political parties to raise concerns about this,” he continued.

1:20pm: “The failure to hold elections this morning represents a real threat to democracy in Maldives,” an official from the United Embassy in Colombo told the Foreign Correspondents’ Association of Sri Lanka. 1:10pm: Alistair Burt, former minister at the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office has tweeted his thoughts on the current Maldives crisis.

1/2 Deeply concerned at news from Maldives. Vital that democracy not thwarted. Commonwealth and Int Observers need to express views. — Alistair Burt (@AlistairBurtMP) October 19, 2013

2/2 Also vital that calm is kept with no provocations. Free fair elections and democratic path only way forward for Maldivian people. — Alistair Burt (@AlistairBurtMP) October 19, 2013

1:06pm: The same legal source has told Minivan News that it was unclear under what grounds police cancelled today’s election, adding that the Supreme Court’s conflicting guidelines requiring an election by hold by tomorrow (October 20) were “confusing”.

While several candidates have sought Supreme Court intervention to prevent polling without their signatures on the voter registry, the legal source said that the guidelines effectively allowed an individual to hold up the electoral process, potentially on unreasonable grounds, without providing alternatives in the case of a stand-off.

“The guidelines don’t say anything about what happens if a candidate refuses to sign the voter registry say for up to six months,  in that case we will not be having an election,” claimed the senior legal figure.

“Everyone must try and reasonably ensure that each of the guidelines are met.”

The legal figure also expressed concern over prioritising one guideline in the Supreme Court ruling over another, adding that the country’s apex court had also requested that the rerun of September 7’s cancelled poll be held by October 20 at the latest.

12:55pm: A senior legal source, who has served under both the present and former governments, has today questioned the mandate of police to decide upon cancelling the election, arguing there is no Supreme Court order providing them with the powers to do so.

“Having read the Supreme Court decision, there is nothing in the guidelines to say police can take preventative action [against holding the election],” said the source.

The legal figure, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the only guideline outlining roles for the police was in them transporting ballot boxes and equipment for polling.

12:30pm: Police release a statement clarifying the Commonwealth’s role in the decision to halt the election:

“Further to the press conference held by the Maldives Police Service on the morning of 19 October 2013, the Maldives Police Service would like to clarify that at no point did the technical adviser from the Commonwealth or any one from the Commonwealth Observer Group advise the Police to take actions to prevent the election from taking place.”

12:08pm: The Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) will hold a meeting of its National Council at 2:30pm.

11:34am: The Commonwealth Observer Group has issued a statement distancing itself from comments made during the police press conference this morning.

The Observer Group wishes to clarify that at no stage did the Commonwealth Observer Group or any of its members give advice to the Maldives Police Service regarding its decision to take action to prevent the 19 October Presidential election from taking place. On the contrary, the Commonwealth Observer Group issued a statement on 17 October, in which the Chair of the Observer Group, Dr Lawrence Gonzi, said “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.”

11:30am: Chief Superintendent Abdulla Nawaz told a press conference that police had “made this decision  ourselves” after seeking advice from President Waheed, Attorney General Azima Shukoor, the police national security council, and Acting Home Minister Ahmed Shafeeu.

“The police have taken a stand to not provide cooperation to the EC as the 16 point guideline issued by SC is not being completely followed,” he said.

Asked if the Commonwealth’s advisor had agreed with the police stance to not cooperate with EC, Nawaz declined to answer, saying that was a national security matter. The Commonwealth’s observer group have disputed giving any advice, labelling this as “incorrect” and “damaging”.

Asked whose orders the police were following, Chief Superintendent Nawaz stated that “we are speaking of advice here. Not orders. Based on advice, police ourselves made this decision.”

“Since police do not only concentrate on elections alone, we are also considering the consequences that may arise from letting the election proceed in breach of the law and SC order. We considered any unrest that may occur in the country as a result of letting the election proceed,” he said.

“Police have even previously requested EC’s president to start sending voters’ list to candidates for review as they were being prepared. He initially said yes, but later said that the other commission members refused to act so.”

“The Police Act mandates us to work to protect citizens’ interests, and we have taken this stand in alignment with these provisions. We have provided what assistance we can, including sending officers abroad for ballot box and paper security with election officials,” he said.

“Although the 16 point regulation does say the election must be held before 20th, it also has a lot of other points. Therefore, we believe all 16 points must be followed, and thus took this stand to withdraw cooperation,” he added.

Asked how the police were weighting the guidelines, in apparently giving preference to the one asking for candidates to sign the vote list over the one demanding the holding of elections before 20th, Nawaz replied: “Both are of equal weight. We believe all of this must be fulfilled.”

“I don’t think it is the police’s concern who is responsible for getting the lists signed, or whether it is the candidates’ responsibility or the ECs. I don’t think we need to consider whether the EC tried enough to get this signatures, or what their actual efforts were. We believe there probably are better ways for EC to fullfil this. However, what we just see is that the signatures are not there. And as a result, it is our duty to take a stand to not cooperate with EC to carry forward elections without fulfilling this SC order.”

Nawaz did not respond when asked if he believed police had the authority to halt the election, and if they accepted they were stepping beyond the boundaries of their mandate.

Asked by a foreign journalist why police were interfering when the SC order was directed at the EC and not the police, Nawaz replied “I don’t think so but there are different interpretations of the SC order. But do you believe that an illegal election, which is against the SC order, should be conducted?”

10:37am: “We have previously sent a letter to EC telling them that we will not provide the cooperation we have to if it is working against the SC regulations,” explained Chief Superintendent Nawaz.

10:30am: Chief Superintendent of Police Abdulla Nawaz has told the press that prior to the decision to halt the election advice was sought from their Commonwealth advisor, President Dr Mohamed Waheed, the police executive council, Attorney General Azima Shukoor, and Acting Home Minister Ahmed Shafeeu.

The Commonwealth Secretariat had previously provided the assistance of an elections security expert, Eldred de Klerk. Minivan News is seeking to confirm whether any advice noted by police was indeed provided, but has been informed by the Commonwealth team present in the Maldives that this was incorrect.

09:50am: When asked at this morning’s press conference whether the actions of the police and political parties were due to remnants of former President Maumoon Gayoom’s 30-year autocratic rule trying to remain in power, EC Chair Thowfeek was reluctant to answer.

“I don’t know and [because I’m] holding this position, it’s very difficult to comment on such questions, it’s better not to,” said Thowfeek.

09:25am: Minivan News observed that as of 6:30am at the Elections Commission, a police van with an unknown number of officers was parked directly in front of the EC secretariat, about eight police in ‘blues’ were stationed in the lobby, while four police officers were inside the 4th floor of the commission.

After the EC’s press conference concluded around 7:45am, only two police officers remained in the lobby, the police van remained parked in front of the secretariat’s entrance, and a few special operations police were seen on the corner of Ameenee Magu – a main thoroughfare directly south of the commission –  watching the secretariat.

The mood in the commission was somber and the commission was no longer a hive of activity. EC officials and staff seemed fatigued, conveying their frustration and disappointment to Minivan News that they had been stopped from holding the election today, despite being prepared to do so. However, they did not seem defeated or hopeless. They appeared to still be digesting how events have unfolded.

09:22am: “Today the world is like one community, every country is connected to another, so the international concerns will be there if they find that democracy is not working in any country… they will be concerned about the status of every country,” said EC Chair Fuwad Thowfeek at this morning’s press conference.

“We are a country very much dependent on tourism and there are tens of thousands of tourists coming from European and Asian countries, so all those countries will be watching and will be monitoring the situation in every country. They will be thinking about the status of the Maldives,” he concluded.

09:20am: “After everything was done within such a short period and after achieving almost everything, two of the candidates [Yameen and Gasim] refused to sign the voters list. That is the reason police stopped us from conducting this election, so because two candidates did not obey the supreme court’s rule, police have penalised the Elections Commission and the people of the country,” said EC Chair Fuwad Thowfeek.

“I don’t know why [they have stopped the elections], I don’t think it is their duty to stop what we are doing here. as long as we are trying to do something according to the constitutional rights of the elections commission. They will know better what their intention is.”

09:15am: The Elections Commission believes the uncooperative actions of the police are actually in violation of the Supreme Court’s mandate for government institutions to collaborate and cooperate with the EC.

“The Supreme Court’s decision does not ask the police services to look into the voters list and check what is there in the voters list. The police services have been asked to see to our security and provide protection to the ballot boxes, ballot papers, and the staff of the Elections Commission,” said EC Chair Fuwad Thowfeek this morning.

“Today and on September 28 it was the police actions that stopped our election. We were forced to stop by them. They are acting beyond their mandate, they have a completely different duty. I think they have crossed the line and they kind of think that they can be our bosses, that we are an institution below them, so they can dictate to us, control us,” he continued.

9:10am: The Elections Commission believes that the Maldives Police Service (MPS) is colluding with political parties and/or government institutions to intentionally violate Maldivian constitutional right to vote.

“I think they are doing so because now it looks like we can [only] act with their permission – if they allow us to do something. The constitutional right that is given [to vote] is not existing anymore, based on what we are experiencing these days,” EC Chairperson Fuwad Thowfeek told media earlier today.

“It’s a pity, we are a very young democracy, [it has been] just five years since we got a multiparty democratic system. We are very much concerned about what is going on in this country at this time,” Thowfeek noted.

9:00am: Police confirm they will be holding a press conference at 9:30am in the Iskandar Building on Ameenee Magu, Male’.

8:13am: Thunder showers and rough seas are predicted for the remainder of the day in Male’, impeding movement in and around the capital.

7:45am: “Right now the international community are doing their best, telling the government how much they value a democratic system,” said Thowfeek.

7:40am: “I do not have any hope that election can be held before November 11 [the end of the presidential term]”, Thowfeek said. With the second delay, elections have become a “plaything.”

Thowfeek said that while EC staff were “disheartened”, “This does not sap our determination. It makes it stronger. Resignation is not a choice. God willing, we will continue to serve the Maldivian citizens until the end of our terms.”

7:10am: Elections Commissioner Fuwad Thowfeek has said police have surrounded the EC secretariat and stopped any document from leaving the building. “As per the Supreme Court’s guidelines, police were asked to provide security, not to check whether the voter registry has been signed,” Thowfeek stated. “We cannot proceed with the election if police are obstructing it.”

“The Elections Commission has spent MVR 70 million (US$4.53 million) on the presidential election. We have worked 15 hour days throughout the holiday period. We are very disappointed, very much frustrated,” he said. “Police have overstepped their authority and impinged on the EC’s constitutional duties.”

“Today is a dark day for democracy,” added EC member Ali Manik.

7:06am: This is the second time police have blocked the EC from holding the election. When it sought to proceed with the September 28 run-off election, Special Operations police surrounded the EC secretariat with orders from Police Commissioner Abdulla Riyaz to take over the building and confiscate ballot papers should it proceed.

6:45am: Police are present at the Elections Commission. A second press conference for the morning is now underway.

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“We will sign the voters’ registry when we are satisfied with it”: PPM

The Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) has said the party’s candidate Abdulla Yameen will not sign the voters’ registry until it has assured itself the list is free of any errors, claiming there were “numerous existing issues” with it.

“We will not sign a bundle of papers held out to us by the Elections Commission (EC) without having seen for ourselves what exactly is in them,” PPM Deputy Leader and MP Abdulla Abdul Raheem stated at a press conference held on Friday.

“EC has failed to respond to the numerous complaints and concerns we have raised with them. It is impossible to hold a free and fair election until the EC complies with the regulations ordered by the Supreme Court. I don’t believe the EC should act in the way it has, sending letters to candidates at 2.30 in the morning asking them to come sign the register. We know that there are still thousands who have not been registered rightly,” he alleged.

PPM coalition member Maldives Development Alliance (MDA) Deputy Leader and MP Ahmed Amir stated that they had submitted a total of 32 separate letters of concern to the EC, adding that they have not received satisfactory responses for any of them.

“Kenereege Mohamed Nasheed [Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) Presidential Candidate] who speaks of being an advocate of democracy and rights, just rushed into the EC as soon as they asked for signatures and signed the register without at all checking it. My question to Nasheed is, how responsible a decision was that,” said Abdul Raheem.

Nasheed is as of yet the only candidate to have signed off voters’ register for tomorrow’s election, stating yesterday that the party had identified only a “negligible” 0.61 percent margin of error.

“As per the information received till now, at least 3000 people have been registered wrong in this list,” Raheem declared.

“It is absolute proof that we are working in the interests of protecting people’s rights as even while knowing that if an election is held on Saturday we are guaranteed to win, we are stepping back and asking EC to protect the rights of every citizen,” Amir added.

PPM leadership figure Aneesa Yoosuf added that despite numerous requests by the party to ensure the voter registry is approved by all candidates, the EC has failed to do so to date.

“We want to somewhat verify fingerprints too, even if of randomly chosen names. Otherwise, what is the point of the SC order asking for fingerprint verification? Someone needs to do it,” Aneesa said.

“We cannot agree that the voters’ register is acceptable. We will sign it once it reaches the point where we are satisfied with it,” she stated.

“We are willing to go ahead with elections any day as soon as it can be guaranteed that the register is acceptable. We will not work to delay the elections. No one will benefit from such a delay. We too want an elected President to be sworn in on November 11,” she said.

At a press conference this morning EC Commissioner Fuwad Thowfeek said the JP and PPM had not sent nominees to sign the registry by the deadline.

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.”

PPM calls on EC members to resign in “national interest”

PPM Deputy Leader Raheem accused the EC of “deliberately doing all they can to handover the presidency to the MDP.”

“I don’t believe that the current team of elections commissioners can conduct a free and fair election. I call on the commissioners, if they have even a trace of sincerity, to immediately resign for the sake of national interest,” Raheem said.

“We strongly condemn Nasheed’s acts, in alliance with the EC, to undermine people’s democratic rights,” added Amir from the MDA.

“The truth of the matter is that the EC is attempting to not hold elections on October 19,” he alleged.

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

“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.

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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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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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