Most presidential candidates wants to go ahead with elections despite problems

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| DATE: 2008-10-08

Several of the candidates who are contesting in the ongoing presidential elections have said that despite the many problems being faced by voters throughout the country, they don't want the elections to be cancelled.

A meeting was convened between the declared presidential candidates and their aides following the influx of complaints and problems being faced by the voters in the elections. Protesters had begun gathering near the main headquarters for voting expressing their displeasure over voting arrangements.

After the meeting, representatives from the Maldivian Democratic Party, Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party and independent candidate Dr. Hassan Saeed said that they did not wish to cancel the ongoing elections despite the problems. However the Islamic Democratic Party’s presidential candidate, Umar Naseer, called for the immediate postponement of the election and for the problems to be fixed before voting was continued. He said that the representative so the Social Liberal Party also were of similar mind. Representatives from the Jumhooree Party’s presidential candidate Gasim Ibrahim, who did not attend the meeting, also said that they were in favour of postponing the election.

Meanwhile, some residents in Gaafu Dhaalu atoll Thinadhoo have stopped the voting in the island citing problems that had occurred during voting.

According to reports from the island the problems that had been faced by the residents of the island were similar to those being faced by others throughout the country: not being listed in the voter list and missing ID Cards. There are four ballot boxes in Thinadhoo and voting has been halted at all four.

The Complaints Bureau in Guraidhoo has also said that they had received reports the Elections Officials near the Guraidhoo ballot box had refused to provide assistance to six elderly people who had gone to vote at the ballot box in the island.

The officials near the ballot box had apparently said that the elderly people could not be given assistance in voting unless they got a written request from the Island Office confirming that they were disabled people who needed assistance to vote. An official said that there were some blind people among the disabled people who had turned up to vote.

The Complaints Bureau quoted the Island Chief as saying that he would not issue such a letter.

Voting in the country’s first ever multi-party elections began early this morning at 9:00am in Male' and other atolls.

Despite heavy rains, a large number of people gathered near the ballot boxes in Male’ to cast their vote.

Voting in the elections also began in Malaysia, India and Sri Lanka. In Malaysia the voting began at 6:00am Male’ time and voting commenced in India and Sri Lanka at 8:30am.

Not long after voting began the complaints regarding difficulties arising during the voting began to pour in.

In Haa Dhaalu atoll Kulhudhuffushi, despite 279 residents from other islands having registered to vote in the island, only 7 ballot papers were sent to the island for them. According to an elections official at the island residents of other islands waiting to vote in Kulhudhuffushi would be able to cast their vote by this afternoon as a speed-launch had been dispatched to the island with the additional ballot papers.

In Noonu atoll Miladhoo, residents obstructed the vote boxes from being taken to the area designated for the voting station. According to the Island Chief of Miladhoo, the residents had kept the vote boxes from reaching the voting station because the ID Card centre had not returned the ID cards of 70 residents of the island by the time voting was due to commence.

In Kaafu atoll Maafushi jail voting was delayed as the voting stations had not been setup and the prisoners had not received their ID Cards. An official from the Jail said this morning that so far they had only received the ID cards of 232 prisoners and that the rest of the prisoners’ ID cards would be received shortly. There are currently 702 prisoners in Maafushi Jail.

Problems with the registration of the first two people who turned out to vote at the Villmale’ voting station delayed the voting process and according to several voters near the station, voting only began after around 10:00am.

Similar complaints are pouring in from several other islands as well.