Maldives president urged to push ahead with presidential polls

As the standoff between two presidential candidates created uncertainty over polling on Saturday Maldives president Mohamed Waheed was criticized by his predecessor on Friday for not pushing ahead with the polling. Former President Mohammad Nasheed called for incumbent President Waheed to become "engaged" in the election process after meeting with the Elections Commissioner to discuss how to proceed with polling after two presidential candidates refused to sign all-important electoral lists. A fresh first round of presidential elections was ordered by the Supreme Court earlier this month after the results of the previous polling on September 7 was annulled over allegations of mass vote rigging. Second placed candidate MP Abdulla Yamin and third placed tycoon Gasim Ibrahim have refused to sign the electoral lists pushing the elections into uncertainty. However, Nasheed has signed the lists and insisted that they are largely free of error. Nasheed was elected as president in 2008, ending a 30-year rule by former autocratic leader Abdul Gayoom but was ousted controversially from power in February 2012 by his then Vice President Waheed. Nasheed nonetheless continues to be impressively popular winning the first round with 45.45 percent of the vote. "I refuse to give up hope I believe we will have elections. I think President Waheed has an obligation to facilitate the Elections Commission to go ahead with elections. We want to see more robust engagement from President Waheed in this process and that is very bad. There is nothing wrong with the list. Everyone can see it, there is nothing wrong with the list," he told reporters after meeting with the Elections Commissioner. Nasheed was adamant that the vote could go ahead if President Waheed and the Supreme Court supported the Elections Commission. Waheed bowed out of the fresh round of voting after suffering a humiliating defeat in the previous poll. However, he issued a statement on Friday calling for all parties to come together so that elections could go ahead as planned.