MALDIVS INFORMATION

MALDIVS

President: Mohamed Nasheed (2008)

Total area: 116 sq mi (300 sq km)

Population (2009 est.): 396,334 (growth rate: -0.1%); birth rate: 14.5/1000; infant mortality rate: 29.5/1000; life expectancy: 73.9; density per sq km: 1,263

Capital and largest city (2003 est.): Malé, 81,600

Monetary unit: Rufiya

Geography

The Republic of Maldives is a group of atolls in the Indian Ocean about 417 mi (671 km) southwest of Sri Lanka. Its 1,190 coral islets stretch over an area of 35,200 sq mi (90,000 sq km). With global warming and the shrinking of the polar ice caps, the Maldives is directly threatened, as none of its islands rises more than six feet above sea level.

Government

Republic.

History

The Maldives (formerly called the Maldive Islands) were first settled in the 5th century B.C. by Buddhist seafarers from India and Sri Lanka. According to tradition, Islam was adopted in 1153. Originally, the islands were under the suzerainty of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). They came under British protection in 1887 and were a dependency of then-colony Ceylon until 1948. An independence agreement with Britain was signed July 26, 1965. For centuries a sultanate, the islands adopted a republican form of government in 1952, but the sultanate was restored in 1954. In 1968, however, as the result of a referendum, a republic was again established in the recently independent country. Ibrahim Nasir, the authoritarian president since 1968, was removed from office and replaced by the more progressive Maumoon Abdul Gayoom in 1978. Gayoom was elected to a sixth five-year term in 2003.

A Powerful Tsunami Strikes Maldives

On Dec. 26, 2004, a tremendously powerful tsunami in the Indian Ocean devastated 12 Asian countries. The Maldives reported 82 deaths and suffered enormous damage: 14 of the archipelago's islands became uninhabitable, requiring citizens to be permanently evacuated, and another 79 islands were left without safe drinking water.

A Shift to Multiparty Democracy

Parliament voted in June 2005 to shift to a multiparty democracy. In an Aug. 2007 referendum, voters supported President Gayoom's plan for a presidential system of government, similar to that of the United States. The opposition, which supports a parliamentary system, claimed the vote was rigged, and three members of Gayoom's cabinet resigned.

In the country's first multiparty elections, held in Oct. 2008, Mohamed Nasheed, a former political prisoner, defeated President Gayoom in the second round of voting, 54% to 46%. Gayoom had been in office for 30 years, ruling as an autocrat. Nasheed, an opposition leader who returned to the Maldives in 2005 from exile in England, had been a leader in the democratization movement. He vowed to crack down on corruption.