MALDIVES VOTES SOLIH AS PREZ
THE REFORMER Solih has said he will seek to free all political prisoners and wants to restore ties with India
MALE: Maldives opposition leader Ibrahim Mohamed Solih won the Indian Ocean archipelago nation’s presidential election on Monday, delivering a possible blow for China which has invested millions of dollars in projects under the outgoing administration. “The Maldivian people have decided what they want. I have accepted the results from yesterday,” President Abdulla Yameen said in a televised address to the Indian Ocean nation a day after the joint opposition candidate unexpectedly triumphed.
MALE: Veteran Maldives lawmaker Ibrahim Mohamed Solih overcame the detention and exile of key opposition figures to win a presidential poll and unseat Abdulla Yameen, but now faces the task of holding together a disparate coalition.
The Muslim nation of fewer than half a million has suffered a turbulent transition to democracy since the end of three decades of authoritarian rule in 2008.
The victory of Solih, who is known as a reformer, dislodges Yameen, a hardliner who had cultivated ties with both Beijing and Saudi Arabia, and cracked down on threats to his rule, even jailing his own half-brother, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.
But Solih, who is expected to be sworn in on November 17, must now keep together a coalition that includes two fierce rivals, Gayoom and Mohamed Nasheed, both former presidents.
Also part of the unlikely alliance, held together by a pro-Islam religious agenda, are business tycoon Qasim Ibrahim’s Jumhooree Party and the Islamist Adhaalath Party, which formed a coalition that led to the downfall of Gayoom in 2013.
“For the president-elect, ensuring a smooth transition and then selecting an all-acceptable, multi-party Cabinet would be the first priority,” said N Sathiya Moorthy, an analyst at Indian think tank Observer Research Foundation. “He would have to facilitate the return home of both Nasheed and Qasim Ibrahim, who are in self-exile.”
The combined opposition nominated Solih, popularly known as “Ibu”, as its presidential candidate after the Election Commission barred Nasheed, now in exile in Sri Lanka, from standing.
Many key opposition leaders, two former presidents Gayoom and Nasheed, a vice president and ministers were hit with jail terms after swift trials that drew international criticism.
Friends say Solih has a calm temperament, and is likely to champion democracy and freedom of expression.
He has already said he will seek to free all political prisoners, including Gayoom.
Opposition lawmaker and former police chief Abdulla Riyaz was released by the Criminal Court in Male on Monday. He was being held indefinitely following an alleged plot to impeach Yameen in February that saw dozens detained.
Sources in the Maldives said Gayoom, the country’s longestserving leader, was among a number of political prisoners brought from prison to the capital in order to lodge appeals against their sentences. It was not immediately clear when the court would rule on all the petitions, , although opposition sources said they expected the process to continue into the night.
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