No Vote for Gayoom
I received some SMS tonite after the preliminary results:
“Victory 4 people! 60% of Maldives said NO to Dictator Maumoon. 60% of people want change! Unite. Together we can do it! pass”
The longest serving president of Asia, who always got above 90% from the public got 40% at the first round of presidential election of Maldives 2008. In the past it was just an election to find the view of the public to keep him in office or not. As there is no other contenders in the election due to his majority controlled Peoples Majlis which always pass Gayoom as the lone contender for the election. Public that goes to vote voice their opinion as who else is there to fill the post of president other than Gayoom and will vote for him. There is no other person for the public to choose, even campaigning for presidency for anyone else is not allowed.
This is the first time Maldives ever had a presidential election, in a democratic free and fair manner.
But due to irregularities, the media tonight at the official result announcement meeting have voiced that they dont think its a free and fair election. Media personnel as observers have sound reasons, but in election commission point of view those reasons aren’t justifiable. Some reasons were :
=> Many people across the country couldnt get the chance to vote due to ID cards being held by Govt bodies for unknown reason. Thus those voters didnt get their right to vote( no freedom)
=> There were long queues in Hulhumale and VIlimale, most waited more than 8 hours to caste their vote at the designated area just to vote, which made it difficult for voters to cast their votes. Some had to go away without voting; old ladies, pregnant ladies, families with small kids. EC personnel at the polling station says checking time takes it longer, they manually check voters name from a big list if they are eligible to vote. In this digital era, using rented laptops or computers, with eligible voters list into simple PDF ,it will take seconds to check. The EC is still in the 1950s.
=> When the voting started, the voters list had some people names omitted. People had to go away without voting after waiting a lot of time at the queue, when the procedure of anyone with ID can vote was announced, there were those that were fedup to go and vote again and those that didnt even know. The EC 1414 free number is always busy. It takes ages to get a line.
=> After the announcement that anyone with an ID can vote, some of the voters that migrated from elsewhere voted at two polling booths. Example a person living in Hulhumale can vote at hulhumale polling station and also to Addu polling station designated in Male’. The list of people who voted will only be checked after the announcement of preliminary results, also election commission wont go into trouble of checking each ID if a number is doubled, even though they say they will check. EC wont even know to whom the perpetrator voted. We wont be hearing from EC about that issue after final announcement. Thats for sure..
During next three weeks hope the EC will learn from the past mistakes and make arrangement for a smoother election.
The opposition has again united forming the coalition to bring about change. It was Dr Hassan Saeed who fisrt shooked hands with Anni. Anni have called upon Ibra, Umar and specially Gasim to join the coalition. Gasim have given positive answer tonight around mid night to Anni. Anni only needs supporters of Dr Hassan Saeed and Hon. Gasim to back him to win this vote.
In my opinion, it is very much unlikely that coalition can bring in more than 50% of the votes without the campaign from coalition . From the 60% who didn’t vote for Maumoon, there are those who dislike Anni more than Maumoon. Its a fact.
The public who chose to vote for opposition candidates had different views in deciding to whom to they vote for. Some voted due to the party, for the leadership of the candidate, for the manifesto, for the money, by the endorsement by specific groups, selecting just to change this regime, etc..
The coalition in the coming three weeks needs to campaign in the atolls at places where individual candidates got the most supporters and persuade them to vote for Anni. Let them know the strength of a coalition government. The auditor generals report need to be more informed to the people, specially atolls. Media should be used at its best.
An independent analyst says “A 30 year old regime wont fall easily as of the 40% which voted for Gayoom is as follows:
25% Old people(above 35 years) still brainwashed with lies of “dynamic fives years ahead”, with a economy walking backward and people trying to survive by begging.
10% DRP got a lot of people in the Government and their family controlled by high jobs, loans etc(zombies?)
2.5% plain stupid and ignorant of his dictatorship.
2.5% afraid of change.
A loud and clear message should be carried to the public, “Lets all Maldivians unite to democratically elect a new president to oust the age old dictator”
eInstallation and delete it
