Maldives - Politics

In the presidential election held in October 1993, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who had been president since 1978, was re-elected. He won 28 of the 48 votes in the Majlis and went on to win 93% of the popular vote in the subsequent referendum.

The country is isolated and low-lying and much concerned about the threat of rising sea level. It was from an initiative by Gayoom that the Commonwealth concerned itself with the effects of climate change of low-lying countries.

Gayoom was re-elected for a fifth term in the presidential election in October 1998. Out of a field of six candidates he was unanimously elected by the Majlis and was then endorsed by 90% of the popular vote in the referendum that followed. The 40 elected seats of the Majlis were contested in the general election in November 1999 by individual candidates (there being no political parties in Maldives at the time).

Gayoom was again elected by the Majlis and was confirmed in his sixth term as president at the referendum in October 2003 receiving 90% of the votes. In June 2004, Gayoom announced proposals for wide-ranging constitutional reforms including a multiparty system and a directly elected president.

The general election in January 2005, observed by a Commonwealth expert team, was to be the last before political parties were allowed in June 2005. The main parties to emerge were Dhivehi Raiyyithunge Party (DRP), led by the president, Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), Adalath (Justice) Party, and Islamic Democratic Party. In March 2006 the government published its ‘Roadmap for the Reform Agenda’, which provided for the first multiparty elections to be held in 2008.

In a constitutional referendum in August 2007, turnout was 77% and 62% of votes were cast for a presidential system as proposed by Gayoom’s DRP rather than a ‘Westminster’ parliamentary system advocated by the opposition MDP. The new constitution, which reduced presidential powers while strengthening the Majlis and the judiciary, was ratified in August 2008.

The first multiparty presidential elections were held in October 2008 and turnout was 86%. Gayoom received 40.3% of votes, Mohamed Nasheed (MDP) 24.9%, Hassan Saeed (independent) 16.7% and Qasim Ibrahim (Republican Party) 15.2%. Nasheed defeated Gayoom in the run-off in late October 2008 receiving 54.2% of votes – turnout was 87% – and Nasheed was sworn in as president on 11 November 2008. On 22 November, Ibrahim Nasir whom Gayoom had succeeded as president in 1978 died.

The first multiparty parliamentary elections followed in May 2009, again with a Commonwealth expert team present. It was a close contest in which the DRP won the most seats (28 seats and 37% of votes); the president’s MDP took 25 (33%), independents 13 (17%) and the People’s Alliance 7 (9%).