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| Thursday, 14 October 2004 |
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Maldives reform bid off to rocky start COLOMBO, Wednesday (AFP) The Indian Ocean atoll nation of the Maldives launched moves towards democratic reform, officials said Wednesday, but dissidents complained the process had got off to a difficult start. Two days after President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom lifted a state of emergency he brought in to crack down on political activists, a parliamentary session known as the Special Majlis opened in the capital island Male Tuesday. "With the lifting of the state of emergency and the resumption of the Special Majlis, there can be no doubt that the reform process is fully back on track," government spokesman Ahmed Shaheed said in a statement sent here. He said Gayoom, president since 1978 and Asia's longest serving leader, was committed "to deliver this programme of historical democratic change" in the archipelago of 320,000 Sunni Muslims. However, dissidents based here said Tuesday's session ended abruptly with members unable to elect a chairman, the same issue that partly sparked the anti-Gayoom protests in August. Another meeting is scheduled for Thursday. Dissidents have welcomed Sunday's lifting of the emergency after two months, but said there could be no real change as long as the president remained the chief judicial officer. |
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