Maddives to hold fresh presidential election on Oct. 19

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Maddives to hold fresh presidential election on Oct. 19

(Xinhua) 17:58, October 09, 2013

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COLOMBO, Oct. 9 -- The Elections Commission of Maldives has decided to hold the first round of the presidential election on October 19.

This was confirmed by Vice President of the EC Ahmed Fayaz Hassan early Wednesday. The decision by the EC followed Supreme Court verdict on Monday night.

The Maldives Supreme Court annulled the results of September 7' s presidential elections and ordered a fresh ballot within the next 13 days.

The court ordered that if no candidate secured an absolute majority in the fresh elections to be held before October 20, a runoff election should be held before November 3.

During the last round of elections in September the front- runner was former President Mohammad Nasheed who was controversially ousted from power in 2012.

However. it is now clear that he together with tycoon Gasim Ibrahim and half-brother of former autocratic leader Mohamad Gayoom MP Abdulla Yamin will all re-enter the fray.

Following the results of the first round Gasim and Yamin lodged cases at the Supreme Court alleging election rigging and calling for the first round to be annulled.

The prolonged legal wrangles resulted in the second round being postponed by the Supreme Court before being eventually cancelled sparking protests from supporters of Nasheed.

The Supreme Court in its verdict noted that a total of 5,623 irregularities were found in the electoral list used for the first round of voting.

Seven minors had voted in the elections while 773 people whose names were not in the list had voted.

Three people had voted twice while 2,830 people had irregularities in their permanent addresses and another 952 people had discrepancies in their names.

In light of those findings, the court believed that as only around 2,677 votes had separated the second-placed Abdulla Yamin and third-placed Gasim Ibrahim, the findings are significant enough to affect the results of the first round.

In addition, the Supreme Court also declared a 16-point guideline on how to proceed with fresh polls, which is expected to be put into practice in a fresh round to be held later this month.

The Supreme Court order came days after a television station supportive of Nasheed was set on fire sparking call from the international community for a transparent investigation.

The international community led by the U.S. and the United Nations have also been closely observing the polls and calling for a swift resumption of the electoral process. A new president must be sworn in by November 11, according to the Constitution.