Maldives poll body endorses Solih’s win

The Elections Commission of Maldives yesterday officially declared opposition leader Ibrahim Mohamed Solih winner of the country’s national election, defeating president Abdulla Yameen who had sought a delay in publication of the final results.Election Commission Secretary General Salah Rasheed said Solih’s Maldivian Democratic Party had won by a 16.8 percentage margin, with an 89.2% voter turnout.Election chief Ahmed Shareef said the commission had received 423 complaints about the election by Thursday, of which 194 were outstanding.“The Complaints Bureau and the Commission have decided that none of the complaints filed with the commission will affect the outcome of the election,” Shareef told reporters in the capital Male.He said all five election commissioners had received threatening telephone calls after Sunday’s election.“We also received several phone calls in which we (the commissioners) were threatened with physical harm. We did not respond to it because the state’s security services were providing security arrangements for all the commissioners.” ( Reuters)