President Waheed withdraws from October 19 election
12 Oct 2013, 12:54 PM
Neil Merrett
President Dr Mohamed Waheed has announced his withdrawal from the rerun of the 2013 presidential election scheduled for October 19, after polling held last month was annulled by the Supreme Court.
Waheed, who came in last place during the now defunct first round of polling held on September 7 with 5.13 percent of the popular vote, said he had taken his decision in the “greater interest”of the Maldives, citing concerns about the integrity of the independent Elections Commission (EC).
“The court found serious flaws with the election register and considered other allegations of irregularities,” stated the President’s Office yesterday (October 11).
Despite both local and international observers praising the September 7 polls and the conduct of the Maldives’ EC, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the Jumhoree Party (JP) – whose candidate MP Gasim Ibrahim finished narrowly in third place with 24.07 percent of ballots cast – by ordering a rerun of last month’s poll in its entirety.
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