Dissidents Arrested as Voters Elect a Parliament
From Times Wire Reports
A parliamentary election delayed by last month’s tsunami was held in the Maldives, but the opposition denounced it as rigged. Police arrested 20 opposition supporters.
Commonwealth observers said it was too early to comment on the legitimacy of the vote.
In the absence of a multiparty system, nearly 150 individual candidates ran for 42 parliamentary seats in the island chain, where the president, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, has ruled with an iron fist since 1978.
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