Tense Maldives holds run-off presidential vote after delays, protests

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By J.J. Robinson MALE (Reuters) - Voters in the Maldives thronged to polling stations on Saturday to choose a new president, hopeful that the run-off election resolves a two-year political crisis which has hit the vital tourism sector in the island paradise. Three previous attempts to elect a new leader have been annulled or postponed in as many months, as narrow election favorite Mohamed Nasheed and the parliament have clashed with a political old guard backed by the Supreme Court. "It will determine whether we become a democracy or a dictatorship." Nasheed, who became the Maldives' first democratically elected president in 2008, left office last year in what he says was a coup. He is up against Abdulla Yameen, a half-brother of Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who ruled for 30 years and is considered a dictator by opponents and rights groups.




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