US sanctions loom as poll poses democracy threat to the Maldives

0 Maldivians queue up at a polling station during presidential election voting day in Male

By BHARATHA MALLAWARACHI, economic growth and longer life expectancy, according to the World Bank. But Mr Gayoom’s critics, including the opposition presidential candidate Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, say he has systematically rolled back democratic freedoms, jailing rivals, controlling the courts and cracking down on the media.

Few foreign media organisations were allowed in to cover the election. There have been warnings the Maldives is slipping back to autocratic rule, just a decade after achieving democracy.

Aiman Rasheed, from the independent watchdog group Transparency Maldives, described the vote as “a referendum on authoritarianism versus freedom”.

In February, Mr Gayoom declared a state of emergency, suspended the constitution and ordered troops to storm the Supreme Court and arrest judges and other rivals to stave off impeachment. What is at stake in the small South Asian country came into sharp focus again on Saturday when police in the capital Male raided Mr Solih’s main campaign office, citing police intelligence the office was being used to organise vote buying.

The warrant also said Mr Solih’s senior campaign official Ahmed Shahid was suspected of bribing voters. No arrests were made.

Opposition supporters in the Maldives and in neighbouring Sri Lanka, where former president Mohamed Nasheed lives in exile, decried the raid as a naked attempt to rig the vote in favour of Mr Gayoom.

Despite the turmoil, voters flocked to the polls, standing in long lines in rain and high temperatures to cast ballots. Voters also stood in long lines in Malaysia, the UK, India and Sri Lanka where the opposition had encouraged overseas Maldivians to participate.