Abdulla Yameen wins Maldives presidential election

Abdulla Yameen won the Maldives presidential election run-off on Saturday, narrowly defeating the favorite Mohamed Nasheed in a ballot that voters hoped would end two years of political turmoil that has hit the vital tourism sector.

The crisis occasionally spilled over into violent protests in the Indian Ocean holiday paradise after Nasheed, the Maldives’ first democratically elected president in 2008, was forced to resign early last year in what he said was a coup.

Three previous attempts to hold the election were annulled or delayed in as many months and, although Nasheed led the first round a week ago, Yameen had the support of resort tycoon Gasim Ibrahim, who was eliminated in that ballot.

Yameen’s win, with a preliminary 51.6 percent of votes cast, was a victory for the old guard. He is a half-brother of Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who ruled for 30 years and is considered a dictator by rights groups and opponents. Gasim was also Gayoom’s finance minister.

Gasim said the outcome would reinforce the role of Islam in the Muslim island state: “We joined you (Yameen) to save this country, to maintain Islam in the country, and I thank Allah for the success.”

During a bitter election campaign, Yameen and his backers accused Nasheed and his Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) of being too secular and close to the West.

Nasheed countered that his opponents had used religion unfairly as a weapon, amid concerns that Islamist ideology was beginning to take hold. (Reuters)