Colombo/Male - Maldivian President Abdul Gayoom led Dhiveli Rayyithunge Party (DRP) in a referendum on a new constitutional system Sunday amid claims of rigging and malpractice by the opposition. The official results were expected later Sunday night, but provisional results indicated that 62 per cent had voted in favour of the presidential system of government rather than adopting a parliamentary system.
President Gayoom, the longest serving Asian leader to rule the Indian Ocean island chain for 29 years consecutively, was forced to hold the referendum under international pressure and campaigns by the main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) who have called for more democratic reforms.
Speaking from the Maldivian capital Male, MDP spokesman Mohamed Lathif told Deutsche Presse-Agentur
