Fresh Presidential election held; Run-off election will be on November 16; US and UK expressed concern on the delay of second round of election; Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Commonwealth Secretary General’s Special Envoy to the Maldi
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    • (NOVEMBER 4-10)

    According to reports, first round of the fresh presidential election was held on November 9, 2013. In the first round, Maldivian Democratic Party’s (MDP) presidential candidate Mohamed Nasheed received 96,747 votes (46.93 percent), Progressive Party of Maldives’s (PPM) presidential candidate Abdulla Yameen received 61,295 votes (29.73 percent), and Jumhooree Party’s (JP) presidential candidate Gasim Ibrahim received 48,131 votes (23.34 percent). As no one candidate has secure the 51 percent needed for clear victory, a second round of the election will be held on November 16. Earlier it was announced by the Election Commission that the run- off would be held on November 10, but after the first round of election Supreme Court ordered the Elections Commission to postpone the second round of the presidential election on 16 November 2013. The Supreme Court has also ruled that, if a president is not elected by 11 November, President Dr Mohamed Waheed can remain in office until a new president is elected and sworn in. The court thereby annulled the resolution passed by the parliament, which stated that presidential powers shall be handed over to the Speaker of the Parliament in the event that a president is not elected by 11 November. The parliament resolution was annulled with the majority votes by four judges; Judge Abdulla Saeed, Judge Ali Hameed, Judge Abdulla Areef and Judge Ahmed Abdulla Didi. 1

    Meanwhile, according to reports, in a statement issued on November 10, regarding the Supreme Court ruling delaying the second round of the presidential election to November 16, the US Embassy for Sri Lanka and the Maldives urged all three branches of the government to respect the spirit of the Constitution and to halt the constant reinterpretation of the law. The US said that the efforts by the Supreme Court to repeatedly and unduly interfere in the electoral process subverts Maldives' democracy and takes decision-making out of the hands of the people. 2 UK’s Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Office State Hugo Swire said in a statement on November 10, that further delays would only risk instability and create uncertainty in the constitutional situation. 3

    Reports noted that UN Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Oscar Fernandez-Taranco, Commonwealth Secretary General’s Special Envoy to the Maldives, Sir Don McKinnon and Joint Secretary at the Ministry of External Affairs of India, Harshvardhan Shringla were in the Maldives to guide election talks. 4

    In other developments, according to reports, Minister of Economic Development Ahmed Mohamed has said the European Union has excluded the Maldives from its Generalised System of Preference (GSP) Plus scheme citing reservations put forth by the Maldivian government on certain treaties and conventions on the right to exercise freedom of religion in the Maldives. Maldivian fish exporters are likely to suffer the most when the GSP Plus scheme expires by the end of the year. Reportedly, the government and exporters are trying to find new markets for the products, with some companies having already commenced fish exports to the U.S. and China. Companies are also trying to penetrate the Russian market. 5

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