Male: Ex-political prisoner unseats Asia\'s longest-serving leader

(SomaliNet) A former political prisoner swept to victory in the Maldives\' first-ever democratic presidential election, unseating Asia\'s longest-serving leader, officials said Wednesday.

With all votes from Tuesday\'s watershed poll counted, Mohamed \"Anni\" Nasheed had won 54,21 percent of the vote to 45,79 percent for incumbent leader Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, the Indian Ocean atoll nation\'s election commission said.

\"I want a peaceful transition,\" Nasheed told reporters as he visited a mosque while results were still coming in. \"I want my supporters to be calm.\"

Thousands of his supporters took to the streets shortly after dawn, driving around the 2,5km² island capital of Male waving the yellow flags that represent his party.

Gayoom, 71, ruled the tourist paradise islands unchallenged since 1978, and had repeatedly thrown Nasheed in jail over a period of six years. There was no immediate comment from Gayoom or his aides.

Gayoom failed to win an outright victory in the first round of voting three weeks ago, prompting the run-off against the charismatic 41-year-old Nasheed, once described by Amnesty International as a \"prisoner of conscience.\"

Nasheed, a political moderate, has promised to root out corruption, deliver better healthcare and communications to remote islands, cut state spending, privatise state trading enterprises and turn the lavish presidential palace into the first university in the country.

As results came in, Nasheed\'s supporters were seen hugging each other at a beachfront promenade where young people had camped for days to drum up support for his campaign.

\"This is spontaneous joy,\" said one Nasheed supporter, Aishath Aniya.

A 27-year-old school teacher Fathimath Niusha said she was thrilled with the change of leadership. \"I want to see how it will be under a new president,\" Niusha said. \"All my life, it had been under Gayoom.\"

The Maldives, a liberal Sunni Muslim nation of 300 000 people, has never had multi-party elections before. Until a few years ago, anyone declaring an intention to seek high office would be banished to an uninhabited island.

The elections were the result of Gayoom\'s promise to bring political freedoms to the Indian Ocean archipelago in the wake of pro-democracy protests and mounting international pressure.

Despite its popularity as an exotic holiday destination for the rich, the country is beset with corruption, an acute housing shortage and a serious drug problem said to affect one in three youngsters.

Forty percent of the population earns less than a dollar a day, and social discord led to religious extremism and an isolated attack on tourists last year, which in turn prompted a tough crackdown on suspected Islamic extremists.

Anti-government protests erupted into riots in September 2003 following the death in custody of a young man held on a drug charge.

The unrest galvanised pro-democracy activists to rally around Nasheed.

In the cramped island capital Male, most voters said they simply wanted to see a new face in charge.

Before Tuesday\'s run-off, Nasheed appealed to Gayoom to allow a \"peaceful transition.\" - Sapa-AFP