The Maldives’ top court has rejected a bid by defeated President Abdulla Yameen to annul results of the presidential election held in September.
The Supreme Court threw out on Sunday Yameen’s complaint that the vote was rigged, and refused to order a police investigation into allegations of fraud, according to an opposition lawyer and local media reports.
Yameen, who presided over a five-year crackdown targeting the opposition, media and rights activists, lost the September 23 election by a margin of 16 percent to opposition candidate Ibrahim Mohamed Solih in an outcome hailed as a victory for democracy in the Indian Ocean archipelago.
The 59-year-old initially conceded defeat, but later called on his supporters to protest the outcome of the election.
On October 11, he filed a complaint in the Supreme Court, alleging elections officials used “disappearing ink”, pen rings, and fraudulent ballot papers to rig the vote in his opponent’s favour.
“The court said there was no evidence to substantiate these claims,” said lawyer Safa Shareef, who was present at the hearing.
“The judges also said they could not annul the election result as none of these claims could affect the result of the elections,” she said.
Four of the five members of the Election Commission fled after the election, citing intimidation by Yameen’s supporters.
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