Vote Fraud of the Century?
By Paul
Government Claims Huge Win For Presidential System;
With all results now in, 93,042 Maldivians have voted for the presidential system advocated by Gayoom, and 57,109 for a parliamentary system....But the opposition MDP are not accepting the results, and have lodged a protest with the Election Commissioner.
Principal among these is an unprecendented turn out of 150,000 of 194,000 eleigible voters.
MDP observers were placed at two thirds of ballot boxes, and counted 72,000 voters. From this the party believes actual turnout was closer to a 100,000.
Other complaints include the Election Commissioner's selection of island chieves to officiate at voting stations, and the distance party observers had to stay from the counting process.
The MDP has sent 147 separate complaints to the Election Commission. The DRP reportedly submitted a similar number earlier in the day
The opposition's point about the huge turn out appears legitimate- than on the other hand it may be that the census is wrong after all. There’s an easy way to check this- just make a list of all those who didn’t vote in the election.