Maldives was thrown into a period of high uncertainty, with the scheduled second round of presidential elections not held on time, even as Indian High Commissioner Rajeev Shahare was summoned to foreign office on allegations of “interference”.
The Mohamed Waheed government seems to have become livid at Shahare’s visit to Election Commission on Friday. According to sources, Shahare told the Maldives foreign office that he had only gone to take an update on the presidential polls.
This is the second time this year that the Indian envoy has been summoned by the foreign ministry. Earlier in the year, the previous high commissioner D.M. Mulay had been summoned when former president and Maldivian Democratic Party leader Mohamed Nasheed took refuge in the Indian High Commission.
The EC had finally decided on Friday evening not to go ahead with the second round and not to defy the Supreme Court which had delayed the polls till giving a judgment on a legal case brought by Jumhoree party claiming that results of first round should be annulled due to voter illegalities.
This is despite the international community in one voice saying that the first round was free and transparent and that the second round should be held on schedule.
Maldivian Democratic Party’s Mohamed Nasheed had got 45.45 percent of the votes in the first round, and was to fight against PPM’s Yameen in the run-off.
Meanwhile, MDP supporters have been holding rallies in the capital against the decision not to go ahead with the polls. There are also scattered reports that resort workers may have gone on strike in certain places, but there does not seem to be a strike.