Maldives sets new presidential election date
The Elections Commission in the Maldives has set a new date for presidential elections prevented from taking place over the past weekend by police
Maldives officials rescheduled the country’s presidential election for November 9 after police prevented the scheduled vote, due to take place this past weekend, because of a conflict with a Supreme Court ruling.
While the new schedule may break through a political stalemate and reassure voters in the troubled young democracy, it may not produce a new president before the incumbent’s term ends, creating a constitutional vacuum.
If no candidate wins 50 per cent of the November 9 vote, a run-off would be held on November 16, according to the schedule Vice-Elections Commissioner Ahmed Fayaz announced to reporters Monday.
The constitution requires a president to be elected by November 11, when sitting President Mohamed Waheed Hassan’s term ends.
The Supreme Court had annulled the results of a September 7 election, finding that the voters’ registry had illegitimate names and those of dead people. The revote had been set for Saturday, but police stopped it because the Elections Commission failed to obtain approval for the voting registry from all the candidates as required by the high court.
Former president Mohamed Nasheed, who led the annulled election with more than 45 per cent of the vote, has accused Hassan of scheming to delay the election until his term ends and continue to hold power. Nasheed has demanded that Hassan resign and hand over government to the speaker of Parliament to oversee a new election.
Hassan has said that he does not intend staying in office beyond his term, but rejected calls to resign before that.