EC Chair dismisses JP allegations of vote rigging: “A small child would not believe what they are talking about”
11 Sep 2013, 3:49 PM
Leah Malone
The Elections Commission has dismissed as “baseless” the Jumhoree Party’s (JP’s) allegations of vote rigging, pointing to the commission’s transparency, ongoing complaints investigations, and praise from a broad spectrum of election observers.
While local and international election observers have praised the conduct of Saturday’s (September 7) presidential elections, JP presidential candidate Gasim Ibrahim, who was placed third in Saturday’s vote with 24 percent, has contested the results and accused the EC of tampering with the outcome.
Hours ahead of a delayed EC briefing to unveil the provisional election results, which tool place in the early morning hours of Sunday (September 8), a small group of JP supporters demonstrated outside the Dharubaruge convention centre alleging a 10,000 vote discrepancy.
On Monday (September 9), Gasim claimed 20,000 unlawful votes had been cast, while the former deputy leader of the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) Umar Naseer – who backed Gasim in the poll – accused the EC of giving Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) members 30,000 additional ballot papers to tamper with the outcome of the election.
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