Maldives to hold parliamentary election

The Associated Press    Translate This Article
21 January 2005

MALE, Maldives (AP) - The Maldives will hold elections for its 42-seat parliament on Saturday, three weeks after they were postponed because of the Indian Ocean tsunami, a government spokesman said.

Government spokesman Ahmed Shaheed said about 157,000 people are registered to vote in the archipelago of 280,000 people. Officials have arranged for ballot boxes to be taken to relief centers to enable hundreds of tsunami-affected people to vote.

A total of 82 Maldivians were killed by the Dec. 26 tsunami, which hit the coastlines of many Asian countries and as far away as Africa.

President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom has ruled the nation, made up of 1,200 coral islands, with an iron fist since 1978.

However, Gayoom promised democratic reforms last June and allowed opposition parties to function for the first time. But the proposals are still under discussion by a special committee, Shaheed said.

''We are determined to go ahead with the reforms and after the election, we will be in a very good position to agree quickly on a ... multiparty system,'' Shaheed said.

Nearly 150 individual candidates are running in the election.









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