Expand / Collapse search
Watch TV
Menu

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2024 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper.

World

Maldives voters choose brother of ex-strongman as new president over 1st freely elected leader

Associated Press
Published | Updated
  • 8fd03133-Maldives Election
    Image 1 of 3

    An election official counts votes in Male, Maldives, Saturday, Nov. 16, 2013. The Maldives is under scrutiny after failing to elect a president in three attempts since September and after incumbent President Mohamed Waheed Hassan extended his term in office by six days, purportedly to avoid a constitutional void because the country is past the legal deadline to elect a new president. (AP Photo/Sinan Hussain) (The Associated Press)

  • e12a67bd-Maldives Election
    Image 2 of 3

    Former President Mohamed Nasheed casts his vote in Male, Maldives, Saturday, Nov. 16, 2013. Voters in the Maldives lined up Saturday in a presidential runoff that comes amid international concerns that the tiny archipelago nation may slip back to strongman rule after long delays in the election. (AP Photo/Sinan Hussain) (The Associated Press)

  • ce4566d3-Maldives Election
    Image 3 of 3

    Maldivians stand in a queue to cast their votes in Male, Maldives, Saturday, Nov. 16, 2013. Voters in the Maldives lined up to cast their ballots Saturday in a presidential runoff that comes amid international concerns that the tiny archipelago nation may slip back to strongman rule after long delays in the election. (AP Photo/Sinan Hussain) (The Associated Press)

MALE, Maldives – Voters in the Maldives have chosen the brother of the archipelago nation's former strongman ruler to be their new president over the country's first democratically elected leader in a closely fought runoff election.

With just four out of 475 ballot boxes to be counted, Yaamin Abdul Gayoom had 51.39 percent of the total vote in Saturday's election. Gayoom is the brother of former autocrat Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who ruled this Indian Ocean nation for 30 years.

Mohamed Nasheed, who was elected president in the first multiparty election in 2008, received 48.61 percent of the vote. He had 47 percent in last week's first round to Gayoom's 30 percent. The runoff was required because no candidate got 50 percent.

Maldives had failed to elect a president in three attempts since September.