Maldives' longest-serving leader faces run-off vote

Male: Maldives' longest-serving leader faced a democracy activist he once held as a political prisoner in a run-off vote Tuesday in the country's first democratic presidential election.
President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, 71, who has led Maldives through three decades of economic expansion but is accused of suppressing human rights, is hoping to win a seventh term in office.

The election, the first with more than one candidate on the ballot since the tiny state, is seen as a referendum on Gayoom's policies and a test of the country's desire for change.

Voters quietly waited to cast their ballots after polling booths opened early on Tuesday. Preliminary results were expected late on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Around 209,000 eligible voters are expected to head to polling stations spread across 1,190 islands.

The challenger representing change is Maldivian Democratic Party leader Mohammad Nasheed, who finished second in the first round of voting earlier this month.

Gayoom's allies have accused Nasheed of seeking to spread Christianity in the mainly Muslim country of 370,000. Nasheed denies he has a secret agenda.