Maldives risks sanctions as Yameen fights back
Maldives judges yesterday heard a petition by strongman president Abdulla Yameen to have his recent election defeat annulled, potentially triggering US sanctions and plunging the Indian Ocean archipelago into fresh turmoil.
Yameen lost heavily in the September 23 election to a little-known united opposition candidate, Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, despite his main rivals being in jail or in exile and the media in his pocket.
Under pressure from the US, Europe and India, which is seeking to counter growing Chinese influence in the strategically positioned 1,200-island honeymoon paradise, Yameen quickly conceded defeat and said he would leave office on November 17.
But even as Western countries breathed a sigh of relief, prisoners were released and opposition figures began returning from exile, Yameen last week filed a request for the Supreme Court to annul the result and call fresh elections.
A statement on Saturday by his Progressive Party (PPM) said the vote was the "most farcical election in living memory" with the organisation "abysmal", vote-rigging "rampant" and many people unable to cast ballots.
The Supreme Court in the capital Male adjourned yesterday after proceedings that lasted several hours, and will resume today.
The United States -- which like the European Union threatened sanctions if the elections were not free and fair -- on Saturday warned it would react if Yameen, 59, does not go quietly.
"The US is concerned by troubling actions by outgoing president Yameen that threaten to undermine the will of the Maldivian people," State Department spokesman Robert Palladino said on Twitter.
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