Zee Media Bureau/Supriya Jha
Male: Few days after the police halted the Maldives Presidential Elections scheduled for October 19, fresh dates of November 9 and November 16 have been set by the country`s Election Commission.
Maldives Election Commissioner Fuwad Thowfeek said that the first round of the presidential Elections would be held on Nov 9 and "if necessary, a second round on November 16".
The fresh dates for the Presidential polls hint at a possible constitutional crisis in the offing for the budding democracy, because if none of the candidates garner more than 50% of the votes in the first round, the run-off polls will be necessitated which will be held not before November 16.
Thus, the country will remain without a President in such a scenario as presidential term of the current leader Mohammed Waheed ends on November 11.
Warning of an impending "constitutional void", the former President Mohammed Nasheed yesterday said that Waheed must resign "and the Speaker of Parliament to take over government until November 11, or before the election".
Blaming the current President Waheed for obstructing the polls, Nasheed said, "It has become very evident that they`ve obstructed these polls, and very evident that the game they are trying to play, to take this country into and unconstitutional void, and then capture long term, unelected military power."
Nasheed had emerged victorious in the September 7 polls which the Supreme Court had annulled.
Nasheed had last month garnered 45.45 per cent of the vote and thus was set to face a run-off against Abdullah Yameen on September 28, which was postponed by the apex court last month after a plea by Jumhooree Party (JP) which stood third.
Reacting to Nasheed`s comments, Waheed said he did not harbour any desires to remain as the President even one day beyond Nov 11.
"It is not me who will decide on an arrangement post November 11. I believe the Supreme Court and the People`s Majlis (parliament) need to think about this," he told reporters.
