Opposition wins Maldives polls, president concedes defeat
MALE: Maldives strongman President Yameen Abdul Gayoom conceded that he lost Sunday’s election to his challenger, longtime lawmaker Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, in a speech broadcast live on television on Monday.
Speaking in the Maldives’ native language, Dhivehi, Yameen congratulated Solih and said, “I know I have to step down now.” The concession and the results were a surprise to Maldives’ opposition, who had feared Yameen would rig the vote in his favour.
Since getting elected in 2013, Yameen had cracked down on political dissent, jailing rivals including his half brother and the Maldives’ first democratically elected president and Supreme Court justices.
The election commission released provisional results earlier on Monday showing Solih had won the South Asian island nation’s third-ever multiparty presidential election with 58.3 per cent of the vote. The commission said voter turnout in the country of 400,000 people was 89.2 per cent.
Solih, 56, was a democracy activist during decades of autocratic rule and a former Parliament majority leader. He became the Maldivian Democratic Party’s presidential candidate after its other top figures were jailed or exiled by Yameen’s government.