Maldives prepares for polls seen as test for young democracy
MALE, Maldives — As election officials made final preparations for nationwide elections in the Maldives, the European Union said it is not sending observers because the country has failed to meet the basic conditions for monitoring.
In the capital, Male, pink and green campaign banners hung in the streets. Election commission spokesman Ahmed Akram said the country was fully prepared to hold a free and fair election on Sunday. But in neighbouring Sri Lanka, exiled former Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed, a leader of the opposition, said Friday that the vote could be rigged.
A decade after Maldivians took to the streets to welcome democracy to the series of coral atolls in the Indian Ocean, voters head to the ballot box in what has become a referendum on whether democracy will stay.
The Maldives’ third multiparty presidential election is being held five years after incumbent President Yameen Abdul Gayoom began consolidating power, rolling back press and individual freedoms, asserting control over independent governmental institutions and jailing or forcing major political rivals into exile.