Opposition office raided in Maldives on eve of election

MALE, Maldives — Police in the Maldives raided the main campaign office of the opposition presidential candidate on Saturday, the eve of an election viewed as a referendum on whether democracy will survive in the country.

Police said they had obtained a warrant to search the office based on intelligence that it may have been used to coordinate vote-buying, opposition spokesman Shauna Aminath said, adding that a senior campaign official had been named as a suspect.

The opposition’s presidential candidate, Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, was not in the office at the time of the raid, Aminath said.

While police searched the opposition campaign office, journalists in the capital were summoned away to the elections office to pick up mandatory election-coverage permits.

The move is a sign of a government crackdown against the opposition that has raised more fears that Sunday’s election may be rigged to favor President Yameen Abdul Gayoom’s party.

Responding to the raid, Hamid Abdul Gafoor, a spokesman for former president Mohamed Nasheed, said Gayoom was trying “to muzzle his way” to victory.

The European Union said Friday that it was not sending election observers because the Maldives had failed to meet the basic conditions for monitoring. The White House has threatened to impose sanctions on Maldives officials if the elections are not free and fair.

Earlier Saturday, the Indian Ocean archipelago nation’s election chief, Ahmed Shareef, said all measures had been taken to ensure a fair vote.

“So far, we have facilitated whatever the opposition candidate requested, within the regulations and laws permitting us,” Shareef told reporters.

The 400,000 citizens of the former British protectorate have struggled to maintain the democratic system established in 2008.

The Maldives’ third multiparty presidential election is being held five years after Yameen began consolidating power, rolling back press and individual freedoms, asserting control over independent governmental institutions and jailing or forcing rivals