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Maldives crisis fears deepen despite poll announcement

The court stipulated that all candidates must approve the voter lists, effectively giving Nasheed’s challengers carte blanche to block a future vote which they were sure to lose.

When neither Yameen nor the third candidate refused to endorse the voter roll, police declared last weekend’s vote illegal despite the protests of the Elections Commission.

Nasheed, a former political prisoner, said outgoing President Mohamed Waheed should step down but he doubted authorities would allow a fair election to take place.

“I don’t think there is going to be an election any time soon,” Nasheed told Britain’s The Independent newspaper, from Male.

“They have had the election and they have had the result, and we won. They came to power in a coup and they will not leave.”

Nasheed has been attempting a comeback after winning the islands’ first democratic elections in 2008, only to be toppled last year following a police mutiny which he describes as a coup.

Key institutions, such as the police and judiciary, are still run by followers of Gayoom who had ruled with an iron fist for three decades.

Nasheed, 46, has accused Waheed of being a puppet of Gayoom.

The United Nations and the European Union joined widespread condemnation of the decision to cancel Saturday’s vote.

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The EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton in a statement warned that failure to hold credible elections would damage Male’s relations with international partners.

Australia’s High Commission in Colombo said “it is imperative that the elections now be held as scheduled with no further delays”.

However, Waheed defended the decision to abort the poll.

He said an election where only one out of three candidates had approved the voter lists could have led to unrest and bloodshed in the nation of 350,000 Sunni Muslims.

“An election by force will only cause bloodshed. I will not allow that,” he told reporters.

“No matter what the international community says, and no matter what political parties say, my utmost responsibility today is Maldivian citizens’ security.

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