Insha Allah this Comedy Circus called “the election” will go for a second round!

As an Adduan who now resides at Male, I went to the Galolhu Stadium, where the Hithadhoo voting booth is held. Voting started with a delay from the announced time.

The first thing that struck me was that most of the Observers from the Commonwealth were huddled at booth number S-01 at the stadium. I wonder how the Commonwealth can ‘observe” the election nationwide if most of them reside in Male and are huddled near just one voting booth.

After casting my vote I came home, soaked in rain. The first thing I noticed after coming home was that the so-called “indelible” mark that was put on the left thumb had been washed by the rain. This mark was supposed to me from a permanent ink that would last for days. This is the same ink that had been guaranteed by the recently established, so-called “independent” Elections Commission. What a joke! This is either utter incompetence or unashamed corruption!

As has been well documented by now, there are innumerable problems in the Voter Registry compiled by the Elections Commission. There are also many problems at the numbers of ballot papers sent to various booths. There are also documented cases of some people’s names being repeated in more than one voting booth. The sheer volume of problems in the voting process has made it very difficult for the authorities to establish any credibility in the final outcome of this election.

After vociferous protests from the public, in front of the Elections Office (at Nasandhura Palace Hotel), the Commission is now trying to appease the people by applying cosmetic makeover to cover their incompetence and shortcomings. With the plethora of problems in the whole voting process, this election cannot be called a free and fair election. It is full of possible corruption and fraudulence and incompetence. It is impossible to accept that this is a free and fair election! It is clear that this is an election designed to mislead. It is setup with a predesigned agenda. It is not a process held to find the voice of the people.

Despite all this, one positive that will hopefully come out of this "Circus" is that it could go for a second round of voting. If, as expected, it goes for a second round, it is intrinsic that Anni, Saeed, Gasim and Umar Naseer come to a common platform, for some sort of alliance and try to topple the dictator through the ballot box! It is not a time to find petty differences. True leaders are those who overcome differences for the good of the nation. I deliberately (but sadly) omitted Ibra's name from the above list. It is obvious for all to see; the divisive role that Ibra played. Let's hope that we learn from this and find a compromise that can bring Anni, Saeed, Gasim and Umar together, so that we can finally see the back of dictator Gayyoom.