Blog

Transparency Maldives

July 13, 2008

This was a news conference by one of several non-governmental organizations who are monitoring the presidential elections. Transparency Maldives is funded by the Australians and the Dutch. Through focus workshops in Male and on three islands, they determined that people have little confidence that the voting process will be fair.

That’s where Cathy Toledo comes in. As a consultant to Think Nation, she is coordinating all of the voter education efforts on behalf of the Ministry of Legal Reform Information and Arts.

Ziayaa and Laura hit the streets to see if people were really so pessimistic about the fairness of the election. No one wanted to say anything positive, so there is obviously a lot of voter education to be done.
Anyone who doubts TVM’s commitment to fairness isn’t watching the 8 pm show. Tonight we have coverage of a news conference by opposition MDP candidate Anni and another story on the People’s Alliance, a party that isn’t even registered yet. There is talk that they may back the president’s brother as a candidate. All of the fragmenting opposition contributes to the liklihood that no one will get enough votes to win or force a runoff with Gayoom.