Nasheed pulls out of Maldives polls

The exiled former president of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed, yesterday withdrew his candidacy for September's contentious elections against incumbent Abdulla Yameen who has jailed all his main rivals.

Nasheed announced his decision after being informed by the national electoral commission that he was disqualified from running in the September 23 vote.

"I have decided to relinquish my Presidential ticket," he said on Twitter, calling the electoral commission's decision -- which it says was due to Nasheed's terrorism conviction -- "illegal".

He added however that his Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) would still contest the election and would appoint another candidate in his place.

Yameen has ruled the Maldives with an iron fist since 2013, launching a crackdown on dissent that has seen two of the country's former leaders put behind bars.

Nasheed was convicted of terrorism in 2015 in a case widely decried by rights groups as politically motivated, and handed a 13-year jail sentence. He was allowed to go to London in 2016 for medical treatment and has remained there in exile since, vowing however to return for the election.

Among those in jail are Yameen's half-brother Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, a former strongman who ruled the country of 340,000 people for 30 years until 2008. He was arrested along with the chief justice in February for their alleged role in clearing the way for an impeachment of Yameen.