Voting began in the Maldives early Saturday to elect the country's next president, and bring an end to a period of political instability for the island nation. "Polling commenced without any major incidents overnight," spokesman for the Election Commissioner's office said. The two candidates in the run-off are Maldivian Democratic Party(MDP) leader and human rights activist Mohamed Nasheed, who received47 per cent of the vote in the first round last Saturday; and Abdulla Ameen of the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM), the half-brother of the autocratic former ruler Abdul Gayoom, who won 30 per cent of the first-round vote.
