President Mohamed Nasheed has called for harshest punishment prescribed in the law be given to everyone who was found to have involved in electoral fraud and improper vote counting to increase the number of votes for their favoured candidate.
The President´s comments come after over forty cases of alleged electoral fraud including improper vote counting during recent local council elections have been filed at courts and over thirty of them were accepted by courts.
Stating that the basis of a democratic system was people´s opinion which is made clear by the result of votes, he said:
¨If any fraudulent activities or anything that might unlawfully affect election results occurred during elections, it is deplorable. This will cause the public to loose faith in the [democratic] system.¨
He urged the Prosecutor General and Elections Commission to conduct thorough investigations of these serious allegations leveled against some election officials and ensure every individual who were involved in improper vote counting and electoral fraud received the harshest punishment in the law.
He said if vote rigging and fraud were increasing, it would ¨cripple our whole [democratic] system, and deem the system inoperable.¨
¨Many people in this country involved in deliberate vote rigging and improper vote counting, in the past. They will know how they did that and what they had to do to do that [rig votes],¨ he added.
Further he said, ¨we cannot allow these people to think that it [vote rigging] is possible even today and continue doing that as our system of governance is being transformed.¨
in today´s radio address, President Nasheed also spoke on the decentralization of public health services beginning last week.
He said the government´s aim was to post public health specialists in National Offices in seven regions, and deliver routine public health services in the islands.
The President emphasized that the government promoted a ¨prevention is better than cure¨ policy which would allow constant monitoring of public health issues and enable implement emergency measures when necessary with proper information.
In addition, the President highlighted, in this week´s radio address, his official visit to Mauritius that he began yesterday evening.
He is making the visit to officiate the Mauritian National Day celebrations to be held on 12 March. During the visit he will also hold discussions on enhancing the relations and cooperation between the Maldives and Mauritius with the President and the Prime Minister of Mauritius, the President revealed.