MALE — The main opposition party in the Maldives on Monday accused authorities of undermining the latest parliamentary elections, but conceded defeat after a bitterly-fought campaign.



The Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) had criticized the Supreme Court’s sacking of the elections chief and his deputy just before Saturday’s election, but nevertheless decided to face the polls.



“How can we call this a free vote when the Supreme Court sacks the chief elections commissioner and his deputy two weeks before the election?” MDP spokesman Hamid Abdul Ghafoor said. “But, we concede defeat.”



The commission’s top two have yet to be replaced and President Abdulla Yameen himself raised doubts on Thursday if the election could be held by a depleted panel of three.



Final results which were due to be released on Sunday have been held up due to delays in transporting tally sheets from far-flung atolls, commission official Aishath Reema told AFP by telephone.



However, early projections by the Haveeru newspaper placed Yameen’s Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) as the largest single party with 34 seats in the 85-member assembly. Its allies were predicted to win a further 21 seats, making a PPM-led coalition a formality.



The MDP secured 24, according to Haveeru figures and party spokesman Ghafoor said they accepted the paper’s projections as being a fair reflection of Saturday’s first-past-the-post election. The MDP had swept the urban population centers of Male and Addu in the nation’s deep south but had performed poorly in smaller atolls, according to the newspaper’s preliminary tallies.



Nasheed’s nemesis, former Maldivian strongman president Maumoon Abdul, congratulated his half brother Yameen on his party’s “impressive victory.”



The independent watchdog Transparency Maldives said the election was conducted well, but alleged widespread “vote buying” that it said could undermine democracy in the long run. It did not say which party or candidates were buying votes.



A total of 302 candidates contested the 85 seats in the Maldives, where the directly elected president has wide powers in the country of 330,000 Sunni Muslims. — AFP