(MALDIVES): Holding the Maldives' presidential revote on Saturday as scheduled is "becoming hopeless" because two candidates have not endorsed the register of voters as the Supreme Court mandated, the elections commissioner said on Friday.
Elections Commissioner Fuwad Thowfeek said that two of the three candidates did not sign the list by the deadline set by the commission, and that he was running out of time to dispatch officials and send ballots to voters overseas.
The Supreme Court annulled the results of the September 7 presidential elections and ordered a revote, agreeing with a losing candidate that the voters' register that was used had made-up names or listed dead people.
According to Thowfeek, only former President Mohamed Nasheed has approved the list. The other candidates, Yaamin Abdul Gayoom, a brother of the country's autocratic leader, and businessman Qasim Ibrahim, who challenged the first-round result in court, have not signed them.
They have asked the commission to verify thousands of fingerprints of voters, which is an impossible task, he said. "If they are going to put forth such conditions, they are not going to have an election tomorrow," Thowfeek said. "We are becoming hopeless"
Nasheed, who became the country's first democratically elected president in 2008, led the initial vote, with more than 45% but failed to secure 50% for an outright win. He was set for a runoff with Gayoom, when the Supreme Court annulled the election, which was hailed by observers as free and fair.
Elections Commissioner Fuwad Thowfeek said that two of the three candidates did not sign the list by the deadline set by the commission, and that he was running out of time to dispatch officials and send ballots to voters overseas.
The Supreme Court annulled the results of the September 7 presidential elections and ordered a revote, agreeing with a losing candidate that the voters' register that was used had made-up names or listed dead people.
According to Thowfeek, only former President Mohamed Nasheed has approved the list. The other candidates, Yaamin Abdul Gayoom, a brother of the country's autocratic leader, and businessman Qasim Ibrahim, who challenged the first-round result in court, have not signed them.
They have asked the commission to verify thousands of fingerprints of voters, which is an impossible task, he said. "If they are going to put forth such conditions, they are not going to have an election tomorrow," Thowfeek said. "We are becoming hopeless"
Nasheed, who became the country's first democratically elected president in 2008, led the initial vote, with more than 45% but failed to secure 50% for an outright win. He was set for a runoff with Gayoom, when the Supreme Court annulled the election, which was hailed by observers as free and fair.
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