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A man nicknamed the "Mandela of the Maldives", Mohammed Anni Nasheed, yesterday concluded an exhausting and bitterly-fought presidential election campaign ahead of a vote that will decide the future of the longest serving political leader in Asia.
To the outside world, the Maldives appear to epitomise the very essence of a tropical paradise, gifted with white sand beaches and azure seas across its more than 1000 islands.
But the Indian Ocean nation has been ruled with an iron grip since 1978 by President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who some consider little more than a dictator.
Today's presidential contest is the first time he has allowed anyone to challenge him for the country's top position.
Five candidates are challenging Gayoom for the presidency. Though there is a lack of reliable polls, the candidate seen to have the best chance of beating the 71-year-old is Nasheed, a former political prisoner who has urged Maldivians to usher in a new era.
Speaking last night as he made a final campaign tour through the streets of the capital Male, noisy with music and shouting, Nasheed said: "We are in the middle of the last few hours of the campaign. We are very confident that we can win it for the first time."
Nasheed's Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) claims that behind the facade of a tourist paradise, the country is grappling with crime, unemployment, drug abuse, soaring inflation and religious fundamentalism. Sabra Nordeen, a party spokeswoman, said the country also lacked sufficient affordable housing and healthcare.
"We say we want to make the Maldives a paradise for the people who live here, not just for those who come to visit," she said.
Gayoom, who previously also held the positions of finance and defence ministers, has been criticised by groups such as Amnesty International for restricting the press and limiting political opposition.
Yet the election campaign has seen the President draw large crowds in many of the Maldives' outlying atolls where more than half of the 208,000-strong electorate live.
His aides believe he will win more than the 50 per cent of the vote required to avoid a run-off and are promising "five more dynamic years".
Gayoom's critics say he was forced to begin a series of reforms following civil unrest when islanders took to the streets in 2004 and 2005.
Last year, Gayoom's attorney-general, Hassan Saeed, stood down from the Government, complaining that the President was standing in the way of moving towards proper democracy. Saeed, an internationally respected reformer, is another of the challengers standing.
Nasheed has been imprisoned for articles he wrote while working as a journalist.
- INDEPENDENT
