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| Sunday, 23 January 2005 |
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Voting opens in tsunami-hit Maldives MALE, Saturday (AFP) Voting in parliamentary elections opened Saturday in the Maldives, the first country to go to the polls after tsunamis devastated coastlines in 11 Indian Ocean states, officials said. Polling booths opened at 7:00am (0200 GMT) and will remain open for 12 hours, the elections commission said. "Voting has began," information ministry director Hussain Shareef said, adding that the closing time could be extended to accommodate all voters lining up to vote when the ballot was due to end. Some 157,000 Maldivian men and women over the age of 21 are eligible to elect 42 members to the People's Majlis, or assembly, out of 150 candidates. The vote was originally due to take place on December 31 but was postponed by three weeks after the tsunamis killed 82 people, left 26 missing and caused some 1.3 billion dollars in damage to infrastructure on the low-lying Indian Ocean nation. The Maldives is a nation of 1,192 tiny coral islands scattered across some 850 kilometres (550 miles) around the equator. Only 200 islands are inhabited. Results of the vote are expected within three days as ballot boxes must be transported by boat from far flung islands. The highest number of voters are in the capital island Male where 29,763 men and women are entitled to elect two MPs while the smallest Waw atoll, which has only 1,179 voters, also returns two members. |
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