Police stops MDP primary voting

As per the Civil Court’s order Wednesday afternoon, Maldives Police Service entered the main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party’s (MDP) hubs in the capital Male and barred the party primary election from taking place.

Voting began at 2 p.m., and is due to close at midnight.

Shortly after the Elections Commission said that it would be "closely monitoring" the party’s primary election, and warned of action if any "illegal activities" took place, a warrant was issued by Civil Court Judge Ali Abdullah which ordered the police, and all the relevant state institutions to stop the election from taking place.

In the warrant, the judge had stated that MDP had already been told that an election that allows former President Mohamed Nasheed to contest would not be allowed to take place.

The warrant was issued per the Elections Commission’s request.

At around 2:15 p.m., the police confirmed via Twitter that it would be enforcing the Civil Court’s order.

An hour later, the police stormed in to the MDP hub where voting was taking place, and began confiscating the ballot boxes.

The police raided four polling stations in Male, and the ballot boxes placed in the atolls have also been removed by the police.

Despite the disruption to MDP’s primary election, the party was confident that voting would continue. A spokesperson from the party said that members would be able to vote via SMS, and that it would even carry the ballot boxes from house to house, if they had to.

The Elections Commission had earlier threatened to dissolve MDP, if the former president, who was convicted on terrorism charges for 13-years, contests in its presidential primary.

Last week, the commission sent a notice to MDP that reiterated that Nasheed has been convicted of a criminal offense, which disqualifies him from contesting in the upcoming presidential election slated for September, as per Maldives Constitution.

The Elections Commissioner Ahmed Shareef had noted that the Criminal Court’s decision to sentence Nasheed was upheld by the High Court, as well as the Supreme Court, and stated that action would be taken against MDP in the court, or in fines.

The former president is running unopposed as MDP’s sole candidate. He is currently in Sri Lanka, and was campaigning via Skype ahead of the primary.