New Delhi: Think of the Maldives and you will see a picture-perfect holiday getaway, with white sandy beaches and swaying palm trees. But beyond the slick tourism promotional, the tiny nation is awaiting the first ever multi-party presidential elections before, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, finishes his sixth consecutive term in office on November 11, 2008.
President Gayoom is Asia's longest ruling dictator and the big question is will he give up power after 30 years or will he either delay the election or rig the results?
Under tremendous international pressure to bring democracy in Maldives, President Gayoom is now wavering on his commitment to hold a free and fair election.
A new Constitution was adopted by the country's Parliament months back and Gayoom promised to ratify the new Constitution last month itself, but words have not been translated into action even a month later.
"Democracy is being stifled, It is finding it very difficult to come to Maldives, " Mohammed Nasheed, presidential candidate of Maldivian Democratic Party, says.
Political parties have been allowed to function in the country only since 2005 and the Opposition was in India last week to seek support for the democratic aspirations of their nation. It fears that if President Gayoom fails to ratify the new Constitution by the end of July, there will be no multi-party elections and he will hang on to power.
President Gayoom, however, has always brushed aside such allegations.
"Those allegations are baseless," says President Gayoom.
President Gayoom has always received unwavering support from the corridors of power in New Delhi but times are changing.
That's why Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Memon listened to the Maldives Opposition openly for the first time.
"New Delhi is definitely engaged with the situation and trying to ensure good peaceful transition," Kuldeep Sahdev, former Indian diplomat, says.
"What we are seeing right now is that the regime is increasingly disintegrating," Nasheed says.
But despite that President Gayoom has already made it clear that he will fight for a seventh term in power.
But it won't be an easy ride to power this time round with six of his top ministers resigning in the past 18 months including two last week. President Gayoom's stranglehold over Maldives has indeed slackened
