By Minivan News
September 26, 2007
The opposition Maldivian Democratic Party claims to have more evidence of vote rigging in last month’s constitutional referendum as it seeks to have the result overturned.
Party chairman Mohamed Nasheed (Anni) appeared at a press conference yesterday brandishing a photocopy of a referendum ballot paper, which should not have passed out of the hands of election officials.Anni told journalists the party had received “a number” of papers, “enough to change the result,” although he would not reveal exactly how many or where they were obtained from.
”Let The Special Majlis Decide”
Last month’s vote appeared to give victory to a government backed presidential system over an opposition backed parliamentary system by over 30,000 votes out of 160,000 ballots cast.
But the MDP has accused the government of vote rigging, and is seeking to overturn the result in the courts and in the Special Majlis.
The party says the government appointed election commissioner distributed additional ballot papers to allow vote stuffing in favour of a presidential system, and this is how the party has obtained a ballot paper.
“We want the results to be invalidated and for the Special Majlis to decide on a form of government,” Anni told Minivan News.
An in built government majority means the Special Majlis would most likely vote for a presidential system. But with an eye on next year’s presidential election, Anni is determined to alter the impression that the MDP suffered a popular electoral defeat in last month’s vote.
“We don’t want the government to say the people have voted for a presidential system, when they didn’t,” Anni says.
Key Report
With no court hearings scheduled on the legal challenges to the referendum results, the MDP is relying on the Special Majlis voting to overturn the results.
A key report from the committee of Special Majlis members which oversaw the vote is to be submitted by Saturday.
Annis is hoping the committee will detail sufficient voting irregularities for the result to be scrapped.
The committee has been divided between opposition aligned members of the People’s Association (PA), who are intent on highlighting irregularities, and government members led by committee chair Moosa Nizar, who support the result.
But PA member of the committee Abdullah Jabir said the committee is likely to agree a report by the postponed Saturday deadline. A draft document was circulated Monday, and will be discussed by members tomorrow.Jabir stressed the report will not recommend either endorsing or rejecting the result, as “the Special Majlis must decide either way.”
Delaying The Constitution?
The government has seized on the MDP’s objections to the result to accuse the party of delaying the agreement of a new constitution. With a new constitution required for multi-candidate presidential elections to be held next year, and a November 30 deadline for agreeing a text looming, no party can afford to be seen stalling.
But Anni insists the MDP is doing everything it can to ensure a constitution can be agreed in time. And he says the party is willing to vote on any constitution proposed by the Special Majlis drafting committee in full, rather than debating individual chapters and amendments.
