Dean Nelson
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Votes were being counted last night in the Maldives in a referendum that could signal the end for one of Asia’s longest-serving and most repressive leaders.
President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, a friend of the late Saddam Hussein, has ruled the thousand-island state in the Indian Ocean with an iron grip for 29 years.
Yesterday, voters were deciding whether to adopt a new parliamentary democracy, backed by opposition politicians, or a modified presidential system, supported by Gayoom.
The ageing autocrat was forced to accept a multiparty system after antigovernment riots shook his regime in 2004 but the referendum is regarded as the first significant test of Gayoom’s popularity.
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