Maldives human rights activist wins presidential election

Mohamed 'Anni' Nasheed, an Amnesty International prisoner of conscience, wins country's first democratic presidential poll

A human rights activist swept to power today in the first democratic presidential polls in the Maldives, ousting from office the man who once imprisoned him and prompting jubilant scenes on the streets of the Indian Ocean island's capital Male.

Mohamed 'Anni' Nasheed, a former Amnesty International prisoner of conscience who founded the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) in 2003, secured 54 per cent of the vote – beating Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, Asia's longest serving leader, in the run-off election.

In a bitter campaign marked by personal animosity, Nasheed - a Sunni Muslim – was said to be spreading Christianity in the Islamic nation via his links with Britain's Conservative party. However his message of change coupled with a call for social and economic liberalism lifted him above the fray.

The results mark the end of the three-decade rule of 71-year-old Maldivian strongman, Gayoom, who won the last six elections, never having before faced an opponent. Gayoom has had Nasheed thrown into jail several times over the last six years.

Following the results, Gayoom told the nation in a live concession speech that he fully supported Nasheed:

"I accept the results of the ... run-off election and I respectfully congratulate Mr.Mohamed Nasheed and his party."

Thousands of MDP supporters flocked to Malé, waving yellow flags while others rejoiced at the beachfront promenade where they had camped for days in support of the opposition. Nasheed, who had emerged as a unity candidate for the five opposition parties, said he wanted a "peaceful transition. I want my supporters to be calm."

The archipelago of 300,000 people on 1,196 islands will officially get its new president on November 11, exactly 30 years after the Gayoom "sultanate" began. Until 2004, opposition parties were banned and it was not until violent riots broke out in August 2005, protesting Nasheed's arrest that month, that the country was set on the road to democracy.

Autocracy did bring wealth to the string of islands. President Gayoom single-handedly built the modern Maldivian economy that rests on high-end tourism, with resorts overlooking white sand beaches and crystal clear waters where hotels charge thousands of pounds a night.

Its per capital income of $2,200 (just under £1,350) made the Maldives the wealthiest country in South Asia.

But the figures masked huge inequalities, rampant drug abuse and corruption amid crumbling public infrastructure. "People have seen a tiny group of people get very, very rich in the last thirty years. Meanwhile we have no communications between our islands. Our health system is in a bad way," said Naseem Mohamed, a spokesman for the MDP.

"People wanted a change from all this". Mr Mohamed said that, although most people in the Maldives practised a relaxed form of Islam, there was an unspoken concern about the "explosive mix of poverty and terrorism". He said that social discord led to religious extremism, resulting in a bomb in a tourist spot last year:

"With our economy so dependent on tourism and the economic slowdown there is a concern the situation could turn volatile."

Analysts say that the real issue for the Maldives was the period of political uncertainty before elections to the new 74-member parliament next March. The parliament has considerable powers – including the right to block presidential cabinet appointments.

"It is what people like Nasheed wanted… a check on presidential power. But there needs to be time to allow the politics to stabilise after Gayoom's one-man show. The opposition has everybody from the democrats to the conservative Islamic parties. It'll be hard to keep them together," said P Sahadevan, professor of South Asian studies at Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Known throughout the Maldives by his nickname, Anni, Mohamed Nasheed founded the Maldives Democratic Party in 2003 while in exile in Sri Lanka and Britain. He took his inspiration from India's Gandhi, preaching non-violence as the only route to freedom.

He was acutely aware that his country would explode without the safety valve of democracy. Although he graduated from Liverpool with a degree in maritime engineering, Anni was best known as a fiery journalist – and quickly ran foul of the authorities. Imprisoned in the 1990s for giving an interview to the international media, Mr Nasheed spent 18 months in solitary confinement, tortured at the hands of security services. He was deprived of sleep and water, fed food with crushed glass and still has a limp from being chained to a chair outside for 12 days. He became an Amnesty Prisoner of Conscience in 1997.

But he never lost hope in democracy. After being elected to parliament in 1999, he lost his seat in 2001 after he was prosecuted on trumped-up charges of stealing. A thorn in the side of President Gayoom, Anni has spent a total of six years either in jail or work camps. He left the Maldives in 2003 and returned in April 2005 but was arrested again the following August, sparking off civil unrest.

By 2004, the tide was turning in the Maldives – and Anni was winning the battle of ideas. In response the government declared a state of emergency. He finally managed to register the MDP in the Maldives in June 2005.