Maldivian presidential election, 2008

‹ 2003
Maldivian presidential election, 2008
October 8 and October 28, 2008
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Nominee		Mohamed Nasheed	Maumoon Abdul Gayoom
Party		MDP	DRP
Running mate		Mohammed Waheed Hassan	Ahmed Thasmeen Ali
Popular vote		97,222	82,121
Percentage		53.65%	45.32%
Incumbent President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom DRP President-Elect Mohamed Nasheed MDP

Maldives

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of the Maldives

Constitution President Mohamed Nasheed Majlis Political parties Elections: 2003, 2005, 2007, 2008 Atolls Foreign relations Foreign aid

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Presidential elections were held in the Maldives on October 8 and 28, 2008.^[1] On October 8, no candidate gained more than 50% of the vote; a runoff was held on October 28^[2] between Maumoon Abdul Gayoom and Mohamed Nasheed and his running mate, Dr. Mohammed Waheed Hassan.^[3] Nasheed and Dr. Waheed won the election, unseating long time incumbent Gayoom.^[4]

The election was the first one held democratically in the history of the Maldives.^[5]

1 Background 2 Voting 2.1 First round 2.2 Second round 3 Results 3.1 First round 3.2 Second round 4 References 5 External links

The election was initially planned to be held on October 4,^[6] but had to be delayed after the Majlis (national assembly) did not pass necessary reforms on time.^[7]

The incumbent, President Gayoom, in power since 1978, ran for another five-year term. According to the new Constitution, which came into effect on August 7, 2008, Gayoom had served the maximum number of terms allowed (two). He argued that since the election was held under a new constitution, the previous terms did not count toward the limit.^[8] The Supreme Court agreed that the limited terms were to be served "under this Constitution" and that Gayoom was therefore eligible to run in the election.^[9]

On August 25, 2008, the Maldives National Congress and the Justice Party announced that they would support Republican Party candidate Qasim Ibrahim.^[10] On September 3, 2008, the six candidates participated in a televised debate.^[11][12]

There were 208,252 eligible voters in the Maldives in the first round, which is roughly 60% of the population.^[13] There were a total 396 polling stations throughout the country.^[14] Additionally, registered Maldivians living in Colombo, Thiruvananthapuram, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore were permitted to vote in Maldivian embassies and consulates.^[14][15]

Voters went to the polls on October 8, 2008 starting at 09:00 local time (04:00 UTC), and expecting to end at 20:00 (15:00 UTC).^[16] The elections were peaceful, though voting irregularities prevented some voters from voting.^[17] Lines to polling stations were long on some islands, with waits sometimes exceeding six hours.^[18] A number of citizens, especially of the opposition to the ruling Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party and Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), were found to be not on the voter list, even though they had registered, and some islands did not even receive voter lists.^[19][20] Later, the election committee said that anyone could vote, as long as he or she showed an ID card that was valid.^[18] A handful of riot police were deployed after 300 protesters gathered around the central vote-counting location, Nasandhura Palace.^[20]

Ahmed Shaheed, the independent vice-presidential nominee said, "It's a disaster... I think there is deliberate tampering."^[18] MDP chairwoman Mariya Didi, who incidentally registered but was not on a voter list, echoed similar concerns: "We hoped that once in our lifetime we could vote freely, but today we are being denied our right to vote."^[19]

Election observers from the Commonwealth of Nations issued an interim report stating that the first round of the election was "reasonably credible" but that there were some problems with the voter list and training of officials and educating voters.^[21]

In the second round, 209,294 people were eligible to vote.^[22] There was a total of 403 polling stations across the Maldives.^[22] Registered voters were also able to cast ballots at Maldivian embassies and diplomatic missions in India, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and the United Kingdom.^[22]

Voting progressed fairly peacefully, though there were some problems, such as people being not registered, preventing them from voting.^[22]

Six candidates competed in the first multi party election ever held in the Maldives. Early results indicated that there would be a runoff between Maumoon Abdul Gayoom and Mohamed Nasheed and his running mate, Dr. Waheed.;^[23] on the morning of October 9, 2008, the results showed Gayoom ahead with 40.3% against Nasheed and Dr. Waheed's 24.9%.^[24] Those results stayed the same, and the four other candidates were eliminated, so a runoff between Gayoom and Nasheed was necessary.^[25] Although Gayoom failed to win in the first round, as he had hoped, he expressed satisfaction with his score. According to Gayoom, the results showed that he was the Maldives' "most popular public figure", and he said that he was poised for victory in the second round.^[26]

Following the first round results, it was announced that the second round would be held on October 29, although election law provided for the second round to be held within 10 days of the first. Election Commissioner Mohamed Ibrahim said that this later date would give the candidates more time to campaign and would give the electoral commission more time "to correct issues with the voter registry".^[26]

Third-place finisher Hassan Saeed, a former attorney-general, threw his support to Nasheed and Dr. Waheed for the second round.^[25] Ibrahim Ismail also backed Nasheed and Dr. Waheed, and the other two candidates were expected to vouch for Nasheed as well.^[27]

Maldivian presidential election, 2008[28][29]
Party		Candidate	Running mate	First round		Second round
				Votes	Percentage	Votes	Percentage
	Democratic	Mohamed Nasheed	Mohammed Waheed Hassan	44,293	24.91%	97,222	53.65%
	Dhivehi Rayyithunge	Maumoon Abdul Gayoom (inc.)	Ahmed Thasmeen Ali	71,731	40.34%	82,121	45.32%
	Independent	Hassan Saeed	Ahmed Shaheed	29,633	16.67%
	Republican	Qasim Ibrahim	Ahmed Ali Sawaad	27,056	15.22%
	Islamic Democratic	Umar Naseer	Ahmed Rizwy	2,472	1.39%
	Social Liberal	Ibrahim Ismail	Fathimath Nahid Shakir	1,382	0.77%
Invalid or blank votes				1,235	0.69%	1,861	1.03%
Totals				177,802	100.00%	181,204	100.00%
Voter turnout				85.38%		86.58%

• Elections Commission of the Maldives (Dhivehi)

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