New Delhi:
The Maldives Election Commission on Tuesday announced fresh dates for the presidential election. The first round of the fourth attempt to hold the elections will be on November 9 and if needed, second round a week later.
The current President Mohamed Waheed's term ends on November 10 and constitutionally there has to be a President sworn in by the 11th. So, the move does raise the question of a brewing constitutional crisis being brought on the boil.
The head of the Election Commission, Fuwad Thowfeek, however said that wasn't the poll panel's mandate. He added that was an issue to be resolved by the Majlis or Parliament. Ex-President Mohamed Nasheed was quick to react. "Maldives election date of 9/11, which makes the constitution obsolete is the final result of the devious schemes of the perpetrators of the 2012 coup," he tweeted.
Mr Nasheed, Maldives' first democratically elected President, resigned under duress in February last year, and was succeeded by then Vice-President Mohammed Waheed. The Maldives has been in turmoil since.
During polls held on September 7, Nasheed got 45.45 per cent of the votes, leading to a run-off. The Supreme Court annulled the results of the first round of balloting and ordered fresh polls.
However, police blocked a presidential revote on October 19, plunging the country into fresh turmoil.
Hours before the latest dates were announced, President Waheed in a press conference said, "It is not in the best interest of this country if there is no elected President when the current presidential term ends on November 10. I do not want to stay in this position even a day beyond November 11." But Mr Nasheed and his supporters see him as part of the conspiracy to deny the first and only democratically elected President of the island nation a second shot at the top job.
India, the US, European Union, United Nations, and the Commonwealth have all been pressing for timely, free and fair polls in Maldives. While the main battle is being fought between pro- and anti-Nasheed forces, other pillars of democracy like the Supreme Court, the Election Commission and the Majlis too are seen by many as divided between these camps. Now, the next 20 days will decide whether Maldives is fourth time lucky or whether the island nation is careening down an abyss of a constitutional crisis of no return.