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Votes must be counted and announced in the islands
DO
editorial - 4 December 2004
Despite Gayyoom's claims that fair and free elections have been held in
Maldives for decades, the reality is
different.
Yes,
there are elections, there are electorates, there are candidates, there is an
election commissioner and there is contesting and canvassing.
But the voting and counting is rigged in Male'
and especially in the atolls.
The electorate does not have the right to choose, because
people are forced to
vote for government candidates. All ballot
boxes are transported to Male' by the NSS and
results are counted secretly in the
capital. Then the totals are faxed to Gayyoom
at Theemuge (the multi-million dollar
Presidential Palace) for approval before
anything is announced.
Gayyoom
will rig the votes and the results at any time
during these dubious procedures. The dictator
has several choices in addition to
intimidation and bribery before the election:
Gayyoom
can burn the ballot papers and just give a
result name sheet to election commissioner
Rashad and order him to make a fraudulent
announcement. Rashad must comply or face the death penalty for
attempting to overthrow Gayyoom's regime.
Gayyoom
can order his NSS destroy ballot boxes during
transportation to Male' and replace them with
new ones full of preprepared votes.
Gayyoom
can also replace votes wholesale in Male', as
he did for the Presidential referendum during
a deliberate blackout of the city at 1am in
the morning just before the referendum results
were announced in 2003.
Gayyoom refuses to adopt
the obvious system of counting in each island
where the votes are cast. Votes should be
counted in the presence of the election
commission with one or two supporters from
Gayyoom's Baathist party and the opposition
Maldivian Democratic Party. This is how votes
are counted in countries with a real election
system. Gayyoom's procedures are followed only
by dictators who want to change results
that do not suit them.
Counting and
announcing the votes live on TV would ensure that cheating during
counting is minimised. Male' can announce the
final results once it receives the count from each island.
There
is no need for the current delay in counting
postal votes from resort workers. If these
extra votes cannot change the final result,
e.g. when a candidate has a 750 vote lead and
the postal votes number only 350, then obviously
the winner is already known.
In the
case of Noonu Atoll, there are 6,940 eligible voters.
Let's assume that eligible resident voters total
5,482 and
there are 1,458 other voters from Noonu islanders
working in resorts, Male', and other parts of
the country. Each Noonu voter selects two
members for the People's Majlis. Assume that initial results from the
island are as follows:
|
Eligible Voters |
6,940 |
|
Actual Resident Voters 80% turnout from 5482 eligible |
4,387 |
|
Non-resident Voters always 100% turnout in Gayyoom's elections |
1,458 |
| No | Name | Actual Resident votes 80% of eligible voters |
Non-resident votes 100% of eligible non-residents |
Total Votes cast | Final results |
| 5 | Abu Bakr Mohamed | 2,516 | 0 | 2,516 | Winner 1 |
| 3 | Ibrahim Moosa Fulhu | 2,321 | 0 | 2,321 | Winner 2 |
| 1 | Ali Mohamed | 1,081 | 0 | 1,081 | |
| 7 | Qasim Ali | 1,415 | 0 | 1,415 | |
| 8 | Abdul Azeez Yousuf | 650 | 1,458 | 2,108 | |
| 4 | Abdul Ganee Ali | 441 | 0 | 441 | |
| 2 | Abdul Muhaimin A Razzak | 321 | 0 | 321 | |
| 6 | Abdulla Yameen A. Gayyoom | 29 | 1,458 | 1,487 | |
If Yameen gets
1,458 non-resident votes and the other 1,458 votes go to Deputy
Minister Azeez, the result will not change - Yameen and Azeez are
out, because the non-resident vote cannot influence the final
outcome in this case.
It
is common for 100% of non-resident votes in Maldives
to be magically awarded to Gayyoom's selected
ministers.
In the
1999 election, Abdulla Kamaaluddeen (A.K.) came third in Male'.
Gayyoom delayed the results and phoned A.K. and asked if he wanted to be a member or
wait for a by-election. Kamaaluddeen decided to
wait, and in 2001 Gayyoom ousted the popular
member Mohamed Nasheed (Anni) on ridiculous
charges of removing rubbish from a demolition
site.
Election results are only
a personal award system when controlled by a
fraudster like Gayyoom.
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