‘Disappearing ink’: Outgoing Maldives president wants court to annul election result

Outgoing Maldives President Abdulla Yameen says disappearing ink and specially treated ballot papers were to blame for his election defeat last month. In a surprise turn of events, a little-known united opposition candidate, Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, was declared the winner. Yameen initially said he accepted the defeat and was ready to step down when his term ends on November 17. However, last week he launched a Supreme Court challenge, seeking to annul the result. At a hearing on Sunday which resumed Monday, Yameen’s lawyer, Mohamed Saleem, accused the printer of coating ballot papers with an unnamed substance to make votes marked in Yameen’s box vanish. Saleem said a “special pen with disappearing ink” had been given to people who were going to vote for his client, AFP reported. A lawyer for the Elections Commission, which Yameen accused of colluding with the printer to ensure his defeat, on Sunday denied any wrongdoing, including using any special ink. A day ahead of the court hearing in the capital, Male, the US warned “appropriate measures” would be taken if the will of the Maldivian people was undermined.