Gayoom ousted after 30-year reign in Maldives

T.V. Sriram

Male, Oct 29 (PTI) After a record 30 years as the
undisputed ruler of the Maldives, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom
Wednesday lost power to a former political prisoner in the
first-ever democratic presidential polls in the island nation.

Mohammed "Anni" Nasheed of the Maldivian Democratic
Party (M.D.P.) had won 54.25 percent of the votes cast in
Tuesday's presidential run-off as against 45.75 percent by
71-year-old Gayoom, election officials said.

Conceding defeat to Nausheed, a prominent face of the
pro-democracy protests in the country who has been in and out
of jail, the long-time President said "I congratulate Anni".

"I thank the people of the Maldives for allowing me to
serve them for 30 years," Gayoom, who has ruled the
picturesque Indian Ocean archipelago since 1978, told Voice of
Maldives radio station.

Nasheed indicated he was willing to bury the hatchet and
that his priority was a smooth transition of power.

"I want a peaceful transition. I want my supporters to be
calm," he told reporters as hundreds of opposition activists
poured into streets to celebrate the victory.

Nasheed said Gayoom's political career did not end with
this election and that he would like to promote pluralism in
Maldivian society and not be "vindictive".

The 41-year-old opposition leader, a maritime engineer by
profession, is expected to assume office in the second week
of November after he is officially declared elected by the
election commission.

The victory of Nasheed marks a watershed in the history
of Maldives where a ban on opposition parties was effective
till 2004. Gayoom had won the six previous presidential
elections but never before faced an opponent.

Under international pressure and growing pro-democracy
protests, Gayoom launched a democratic reform programme four
years ago, lifting ban on political parties and promising to
hold the nation's first multiparty presidential election.

Gayoom won the first round of presidential polls earlier
this month, but could not secure the stipulated 50 percent
needed for outright victory. While Gayoom polled 40.1 percent
of votes in the first round, Nasheed secured 25.1 percent.

But interestingly, opposition candidates who failed to
make it to the second round threw their weight behind Nasheed,
ensuring his victory in the run-off.

About 2,09,000 people were eligible to vote in the polls
and the turnout was estimated at over 75 percent.

Nasheed, who spent six years in jail in Maldives and was
described by Amnesty International as a "prisoner of
conscience," was granted political asylum by the UK in 2004.

He returned to the country on April 30, 2005 after Gayoom
permitted political parties to be formed for first time.

Gayoom has run the Maldives, a liberal Sunni Muslim
nation of 300,000 people, unchallenged since 1978, before
unprecedented street riots broke out in 2003 when a prisoner
was killed in custody. He was then persuaded by international
human rights groups and the E.U. to allow more freedom.

President Gayoom has nevertheless been credited with
catapulting Maldives, which became independent from British on
July 26, 1965, to a higher economic growth and making the
country one of the wealthiest in South Asia.

There have been at least three coup attempts against
Gayoom and he survived a bid on his life early this year while
mingling with a crowd on Hoarafushi in the north of Maldives.
The man, who tried to attack the President with a knife, was
overpowered and Gayoom escaped without any injury.

In November 1998, India's help was sought to crush a coup
against the ruler. Indian troops landed in the island and
successfully put down the coup.