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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.

The multiparty system was put to the test for the first time in the constitutional referendum of August 2007. The referendum, part of the Gayoom’s reform agenda, saw his party DRP back a presidential system of governance against a ‘Westminster’ parliamentary system advocated by the opposition MDP. Turnout was relatively high in the referendum with around 77% of the total 193,000 eligible voters taking part; 95,679 opted for a presidential system, while 58,504 backed a parliamentary system. The result gave the Majlis a mandate to develop a constitution based on a presidential system of government. Gayoom confirmed his candidacy in the presidential elections under the new system. The new constitution, which reduced presidential powers whilst strengthening the Majlis and the judiciary, was ratified in August 2008.

At the elections of 8 October 2008, the first under the new constitution, turnout was high at 86%. Results of the contest revealed a split vote among the leading four candidates: Gayoom with 40% of the vote, Mohamed Nasheed (MDP) 24.9%, Hassan Saeed (independent) 16.7%, and Qasim Ibrahim (Republican Party) 15.2%. With no candidate receiving the necessary ‘50% plus one vote’ needed to secure presidency, the top two candidates Gayoom and Nasheed proceeded to a second round run-off vote. In the second round elections Nasheed, buoyed by endorsements from unsuccessful first round candidates, defeated long-time president, Gayoom, who had led the country for 30 years, by a convincing 8% margin, 54.2% to 45.8%. Turnout was 87%. Nasheed became the country’s fourth president on 11 November 2008.