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Gayoom concedes poll defeat
The Maldives' incumbent president of 30 years on Wednesday conceded a historic election to a former political activist he repeatedly threw in jail during years of crusading for democracy on the tropical Indian Ocean archipelago.
- Reuters
- Published: 23:43 October 29, 2008
- Supporters of the Maldivian Democratic Party celebrate as the announced provisional results show a clear win for their presidential candidate Mohammad Nasheed in Male, Maldives, yesterday.
- Image Credit: AP
Male: The Maldives' incumbent president of 30 years on Wednesday conceded a historic election to a former political activist he repeatedly threw in jail during years of crusading for democracy on the tropical Indian Ocean archipelago.
With all 179,343 votes counted, Mohammad "Anni" Nasheed had 54.2 per cent against 45.8 per cent for President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, Asia's longest-serving leader, Election Commissioner Mohammad Ebrahim said, citing provisional figures.
Gayoom told state radio that he accepted the verdict of the electorate and would not leave the country. Gayoom had already pledged to hand power over peacefully.
"Beloved citizens of the Maldives, I accept the results of the October 28 runoff election and respectfully congratulate Mohammad Nasheed and his party," Gayoom told the state-run Voice of Maldives radio.
Nasheed's victory in the nation's first multi-party elections caps a remarkable journey for an activist whose criticism of Gayoom and crusading for democracy saw him charged 27 times and jailed or banished to remote atolls for a total of six years.
"It's a very happy result. It speaks for itself. It's the people's verdict," said Ebrahim Hussain Zaki, vice president of Nasheed's Maldivian Democratic Party.
Crackdown
The vote is the culmination of years of agitation for democratic reforms on the string of 1,192 mostly uninhabited coral atolls 800 km off the tip of India, peopled by 300,000 Sunni Muslims.
With the country's international reputation as a diving hotspot and luxury hideaway for Hollywood stars and others ready to pay thousands of dollars for a nightly stay, Gayoom had been criticised for ruling it like a personal sultanate.
Nasheed, 41, was at the fore of the campaign for democracy, including the 2004 protests that prompted a brutal crackdown by security forces and drew rare international criticism, and attention, to the hideaway islands.
Gayoom, 71, won the October 9-10 first-round election, but fell short of the 50 per cent needed to avoid a runoff. Nasheed was second, but this time had the backing of the four contenders who placed behind him and Gayoom.
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