Thousands of Maldivians voted yesterday in a referendum many hailed as the tiny Indian Ocean nation's first real expression of democracy.
Voters were technically choosing a new form of government, but many saw the referendum as an informal vote of confidence on the 29-year-reign of Maldivian President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, Asia's longest-serving ruler.
"This election means freedom," said Suheil Ismail, 41, after voting in a breezy, open room at a schoolhouse in the capital of Male.
Yesterday's voting appeared generally calm and courteous. At the national soccer stadium in Male, voters waited quietly in the shady stands for their turn to enter one of the 13 blue voting tents that ringed the field.
Outside, scores of the city's ubiquitous motorcycles stood neatly parked in a row, while nearby taxis ferried voters to the polling station.
Nasha Mohamed, 21, a health industry worker, said the election heralded the arrival of real democracy to the islands.
"Before, the system was not established by the people. Now, the system will be established by the people, so it should be better," she said after voting.
Gayoom is pushing for a US-style political system, with a powerful executive presidency. The opposition, wary of giving too much power to another leader -- or to Gayoom for yet another five-year term -- backs a British-style parliament, which would be led by a more accountable prime minister.
Whatever the outcome, the poll is expected to be peaceful and credible, clearing the way for the country of 300,000 people to adopt a new constitution in November, and to hold its first multiparty elections next year.
Gayoom -- who has won six elections but never faced an opponent -- has led the nation of 1,190 coral islands southwest of India through a period of explosive economic growth, fueled by the 600,000 tourists a year who frolic on the sandy beaches of its remote island resorts.
But he has also been accused by opposition leaders, Western diplomats and international human rights groups of using torture and police crackdowns to stifle dissent.
The referendum campaign engulfed Male on Friday, as the ruling party and opposition Maldivian Democratic Party held competing rallies and covered the 2km2 capital island -- home to 100,000 people -- in banners.
"This has definitely been, on both sides, the most organized and most expensive campaign ever in the country," said presidential spokesman Mohamed Shareef. "If ever people are going to be urged to get off their feet and vote, I think this is going to be it."
The vote is the culmination of a reform drive Gayoom began in 2004 amid a wave of growing street protests.
But his other reform efforts over the past three years -- legalizing opposition parties and allowing them to print newspapers -- have been followed by police crackdowns on public rallies and arrests of political dissidents.
In the run up to the referendum, concerns remained, especially after Gayoom's attorney general who is internationally respected and his minister of justice resigned earlier this month saying the president was not serious enough about his reform efforts.
Yet Foreign Minister Ahmed Shaheed, another young reformer in the government, urged patience.
"To my judgment, this is a very sincere effort by the president to bring the Maldives into the 21st Century," he said.
The Maldives is by far the wealthiest -- and most orderly -- country in South Asia, with tourism accounting for a third of the economy and fishing making up a big chunk of the rest.
But half the population is under 18, reasonably well-educated and with few prospects for good jobs. Some young people have turned to drug use. Others have embraced a conservative strain of Islam. In a reform aimed at empowering the youth, Gayoom lowered the voting age for the referendum to 18 from 21.
The Maldives, whose highest point is only 2.4m above sea level, is also facing the threat that ocean levels, rising because of global warming, will eventually swallow it up.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in