Yearbook 2009
Maldives. According to countryaah, the May elections were a relative setback for newly elected President Mohamed Nashid. His party’s Maldivian Democratic Party received 26 of the 77 seats, two fewer than the Maldivian People’s Party, formed by former President Maumun Abdul Gayum. It forced the former political prisoner Nashid to rely on a fragile coalition government. See ABBREVIATIONFINDER for abbreviation MV which stands for the nation of Maldives.
In June, Nashid visited Stockholm to receive the Anna Lindh Prize. He was awarded it for both his efforts for a peaceful change of power as well as for his efforts to put the individual and human rights at the center of the climate change debate. The Maldives, whose land surface has an average elevation of about 1.5 meters, is one of the countries most threatened by a rising sea surface. Both Nashid and Representative Gayum have noticed the vulnerability of the Maldives and other low-lying nations at a number of international forums, and Nashid promised shortly after the power take-off that until 2010 they should have completely abolished their own carbon dioxide emissions. In a public relations jeep with serious undertones, in October, Nashid and his ministers conducted a government meeting at 4 meters deep in the sea, all wearing diving equipment.
The Maldives and India agreed in August on increased cooperation in defense and security matters. First and foremost, India should help monitor and protect the Maldives’ exclusive economic zone.
HISTORY
Probably inhabited starting from the 6th century, the Maldives were the seat of a sultanate and were occupied by the Portuguese in 1558. During the 17th century. they passed under the dominion of the Dutch, replaced in 1795 by the English, of which the Maldives became protectorate in 1887. In 1932 the office of sultan was made elective. After a short republican period (1953-54), the Maldives reached full independence in 1965; in 1968 a national referendum sanctioned the passage from the sultanate to a presidential republic and AI Nasir, prime minister since 1954, became president. In 1978 he was taken over by MA Gayoom, who continued his authoritarian policy, being reconfirmed, through plebiscites, in 1983 and 1988. On the economic level, foreign investments in the tourism sector were favored. In 1993 Gayoom was re-elected president for the fourth time.
In 1998, a new Constitution was enacted, introducing unlimited mandate for the President of the Republic and immunity for Members of Parliament, and Gayoom was re-elected as president. In September 1999 the environmental problem (the threat of the disappearance of the Maldives, and of other nearby islands, due to the rise in sea level due to the greenhouse effect) was addressed in a specific session of the UN General Assembly, thus assuming an international significance. Gayoom was re-elected in 2003, amid internal protests and international pressure against the repression of dissent and violations of human rights. Parliament introduced multi-partyism in 2005 and in 2007 a referendum approved a new presidential formula of government. The first democratic presidential elections of 2008 resulted in Maldives Nasheed’s victory over Gayoom. In February 2012, Nasheed was forced by the military to resign in favor of his deputy, Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik. In the first round of the presidential elections, held in September 2013, neither former president Nasheed, who won 45.5% of the vote, nor opponent A. Yameen, who won on 25th, did not obtain an absolute majority., 3%. The results of the elections were subsequently invalidated for irregularities and suspicions of fraud; the new consultations, called for the month of October, were canceled by a police intervention which prevented the distribution of the electoral material. The ballot, finally held in November, awarded the victory to Yameen, half-brother of former dictator Maldives Gayoom and leader of the Progressive Party of the Maldives, who defeated former president Nasheed receiving 51.6% of the votes. The political formation of President Yameen confirmed these results by obtaining with his governing coalition the majority in the new Parliament in the legislative elections held in March 2014, which also recorded a heavy defeat of the Maldives Democratic Party of Nasheed, while the presidential elections held in the September 2018 saw the candidate winthe opposition Maldives Solih, who won 58% of the votes in the first round, taking over from Yameen in November; in April of the following year the President’s Democratic Party won a large majority in the parliamentary elections, obtaining 68 out of 87 seats.