The Maldivian elections commission today said it has planned to go ahead with this weekend's parliamentary polls despite the islands' new president expressing doubts over whether the vote can be conducted.
President Abdulla Yameen told a public rally in the capital island Male yesterday night that a depleted Elections Commission may not be able to conduct the vote which is due to take place tomorrow.
The head of the commission and his deputy were both sacked last week for "disobeying" a Supreme Court order to adjourn part of last year's presidential election which was eventually won in November by Yameen.
In a rally on yesterday night, Yameen questioned whether the commission now had the ability to conduct a free and fair poll for the 85-seat parliament given that two of its five positions were now vacant.
"The commission barely meets the quorum (of three) to hold an election of such importance," Yameen said yesterday night.
An ally of the ruling party has also petitioned the Supreme Court seeking a postponement of tomorrow's vote, but the court has yet to announce its decision.
The commission said it was going ahead with arrangements, unless it heard otherwise.
"Until the Supreme Court informs us otherwise, we will go ahead with the elections tomorrow," spokeswoman Aishath Shifana told AFP.
The sacking of two top election officials has reopened the controversy over last year's presidential election when the Supreme Court annulled the results of a first round won by former president Mohamed Nasheed, and then cancelled two other polls at the last minute.
Yameen won the November 16 presidential run off, five years after the island nation introduced multi-party democracy.
Western nations as well as neighbouring India have said they were closely following developments in a country where recent political unrest has dented its image as a honeymoon paradise for tourists.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called for peaceful and credible elections this week.
A total of 302 candidates are contesting 85 constituencies in a country of just over 330,000 Sunni Muslims. Former president Nasheed's Maldivian Democratic Party is the front-runner, but observers were doubtful if any single party will be able to take the assembly.
