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Maldives police block presidential vote

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The Maldives has been plunged into a new constitutional crisis after police halted Saturday's planned presidential election. A member of the country's Election Commission said it was "dark day for democracy," while leaders of former president Mohamed Nasheed's Maldives Democratic Party called for international intervention to allow elections to go ahead. The elections were cancelled early on Saturday morning after police entered the office of the country's Election Commission and ordered its officials to stop their preparations for the vote.

They said they were acting to enforce a Supreme Court ruling that all presidential candidates must approve the voter lists before the election could proceed. Two candidates close to the islands' former dictator Maumoon Abdul Gayoom had refused to approve the list. The Supreme Court had earlier annulled the first round of the election on September 7 after Nasheed won 45 per cent of the vote. His two closest rivals, Abdulla Yameen, younger brother of the former dictator, and Qasim Ibrahim, won 25 and 24 per cent respectively - but later alleged ballot fraud.

Under the Maldives constitution, a new president must be elected by November 11 when the incumbent Waheed Hassan's term expires. It is unclear how the country will now be able to hold two rounds of voting before that deadline.

Nasheed's MDP said it believed the current government and allies of former dictator Abdul Maumoon Gayoom do not want elections to go ahead because they fear Mr Nasheed will win a second term.

Nasheed became the state's first democratically-elected president after three decades of dictatorship in 2008. But he claimed he had been forced to resign in a coup by elements within the police and army in February 2012. His resignation was followed by violent clashes between his supporters and members of the security forces. Several police stations throughout the Maldives' islands were torched.

Since then the Maldives government has been under intense international pressure to hold free and fair elections to settle the political dispute and return the islands to stability. The decision by police however has plunged the country into uncertainty and the possibility of fresh protests.

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