Maldives President Ibrahim
Mohamed Solih won the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party’s (MDP)
presidential primary election, the first time an incumbent has
faced a primary challenge, according to preliminary results.
But his challenger, former President Mohamed Nasheed has not
accepted the results reported by the party. An official from his
campaign said on Saturday the results were questionable, as
voter tallies in some ballot stations did not match the total
eligible voters.
Nasheed’s supporters and representatives have alleged voter
fraud and vote rigging in the contentious election in the
archipelago of India and Sri Lanka.
Solih secured 61 percent of the vote with 24,566 ballots, beating
Nasheed with 15,641, the party said. Both had made whirlwind
campaign tours across the country over the past month.
More than 40,000 MDP members, or 71 percent, voted, the party said.
Solih supporters gathered in the capital Male to celebrate
after local media projected his victory on Saturday. Meeting
them at the main MDP rally centre, Solih called on the members
to unite for the upcoming presidential election.
“Now our competitive nature should be put behind us. That is
over. Now we have to unite to ensure MDP wins the presidential
election,” he said.
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Few scuffles
A few scuffles broke out during the voting in some islands,
with police arresting three men for disrupting ballot
activities. They were arrested for vandalising ballot boxes, a
police spokesperson said.
Another contentious issue was the removal of several
thousand members from MDP’s registry, rendering them ineligible
to vote in the primary. Nasheed’s campaign has said the move
affected mostly the ex-president’s supporters.
MDP has countered that the removals reflected attempts to bring the party’s membership registry in line with the official registry maintained by the Elections Commission. MDP said members who were removed had the opportunity to rejoin the party and were given time to do so.
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