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Nasheed tops Maldives vote, faces shaky run-off

Nasheed tops Maldives vote, faces shaky run-off

Malé (Maldives) (AFP) - The Maldives first freely elected president Mohamed Nasheed topped Saturday's bitterly-fought elections but faces a tricky run-off that is likely to be delayed as he bids to return to power 21 months after he was ousted.

Nasheed garnered 46.93 percent of the popular vote but fell short of the 50 percent needed to win outright in the Indian Ocean archipelago nation best known as a honeymoon destination.

The 46-year-old -- a one-time political prisoner and environmental activist -- won the country's first multi-party elections in 2008, ending 30 years of iron-fisted rule by Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.

But after clashing with key institutions, including the judiciary and security forces, he was forced to resign in February 2012.

His Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) immediately pressed for a quick second round of voting on Sunday as previously scheduled as his main challenger Abdulla Yameen, half-brother of former autocrat Gayoom, asked for a postponement.

The Commonwealth which monitored Saturday's election warned the Maldives against delaying the run-off, saying it was "unreasonable and unacceptable for parties to continue to demand changes to an agreed election date."

The bloc's special envoy to the Maldives, Don McKinnon, said the hard-fought ballot was a "good election" even though it failed to deliver an outright winner in a country with an electorate of 239,000 Sunni Muslims.

The pro-Western MDP urged the international community to mount pressure on Maldivian authorities to stick to the ballot timetable and ensure an elected president is sworn in by the constitutional deadline of Monday.

"The international community must apply pressure -? including targeted, punitive sanctions -? on those individuals who seek to undermine Maldivian democracy," the party said in a statement.

Yameen told reporters that he was not ready to face a run-off Sunday.

"I am not ready to accept the voter lists and we need at least 48 hours to approve them," Yameen said. "A run-off election can be after that."

Chief Elections Commissioner Fuwad Thowfeek had announced the run-off for Sunday.

However, it was not immediately clear if he could go ahead as a previous election was scuttled because Yameen and Saturday's loser Qasim Ibrahim refused to approve voter lists, a legal requirement in the Maldives.

Final official tallies showed Nasheed received 46.93 percent of the popular vote and faces Yameen, who garnered 29.73 percent of the vote.

Ibrahim, a resort tycoon, came last with 23.34 percent and was thrown out of the run-off, but he said he wanted more time to inform his supporters which of the two candidates to support at a future run-off.

The MDP argues that unless an election is held Sunday, the country could head for a constitutional crisis without a leader, but the Supreme Court Saturday ruled that outgoing President Mohamed Waheed can remain as a caretaker.

Nasheed, who was ousted as president nearly two years ago in what he called a coup, sought to win an outright majority Saturday, but just managed to retain the same level of support he had at the now annulled September 7 polls.

The latest election was observed by more than 2,000 local and foreign monitors across the archipelago of 1,192 tiny coral islands and they did not report any electoral malpractice.

The Maldives, whose turquoise seas and white beaches have long been a tourist draw, has been the focus of intense US-led diplomatic pressure since judges annulled results of the September 7 vote which was also won by Nasheed.

When new polls were scuppered six weeks later, suspicions grew that authorities were determined to prevent Nasheed from returning to power at any price.

Yameen's Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) had warned that there could be legal challenges to the outcome of Saturday's vote irrespective of who won.

A host of Western diplomats had flown in to seek to ensure no hitches in the vote in a nation of 350,000 with a fragile tourism-dependent economy.

During his rule, Gayoom packed the judiciary and security forces with supporters, and there are suspicions that even if Nasheed wins, he could still be thwarted.

"I still have doubts he will be allowed to take power," a European diplomat told AFP before the results were known.