Police halt Maldives presidential election

Police in the Maldives have forced the postponement of the re-run of the presidential poll, declaring the vote illegal and blocking ballot papers from leaving the offices of the Elections Commission.

"We continued with preparations for voting, but the Maldives Police Service have said no documents connected to the election can leave the commission's offices," the independent Elections Commission said in a statement on Saturday.

The election was due to take place on Saturday, but "a new date for elections will be informed later", the commission said.

The Supreme Court annulled the results of a September 7 presidential election and ordered a revote, agreeing with losing candidate Qasim Ibrahim that the voters' register which listed fictional names and dead people.

Police spokesman Abdulla Nawaz told the AFP news agency that they considered it was illegal to stage the election in violation of a Supreme Court order that required all candidates to approve electoral lists.

Only the former president, Mohamed Nasheed, has approved the list. Ibrahim and Yaamin Abdul Gayoom, a brother of the country's long-time autocratic leader Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, has not signed them.

"Only one candidate had signed the voter register and therefore it would have been a violation of the Supreme Court guidelines for the election to go ahead," the police spokesman said.

asheed resigned in Feburary last year in what he and his supporters described as a coup, saying he was forced to step down at gunpoint by police and army officers.

He fell five percentage points short of an outright majority win in the first round in September.

He was set for a runoff with Gayoom when the Supreme Court annulled the election, which was hailed by the United Nations, United States, India and Commonwealth observers as largely free and fair.

After Saturday's election was called off, Hamid Abdul Ghafoor, a spokesman for Nasheed, accused the judiciary and police of being the pawns of Gayoom and called for international engagement to have an election soon.

Others also decried the cancelled vote.

"This clearly undermines the democracy and violates the people's right to vote,'' said Mohamed Visham, editor of local daily Haveeru.

But he added that the election setbacks would not discourage Maldivians from believing in democracy.

"All hope is not lost. There is still time to have an election before November 11," he said, referring to the date when President Mohamed Waheed Hassan's term ends.