Voting starts in Maldives elections

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MALE: Voting started Wednesday in the Maldives'' first democratic presidential election, which sees the Indian Ocean archipelago choosing whether to replace Asia''s longest-serving leader.Polling stations in the capital Male and scores of islands in the chain of white sand and crystal-clear water atolls opened at 9:00 am (0400 GMT) and are due to close at 9:00 pm, the election commission said. In all, 208,000 people are eligible to vote, and the final result is expected Thursday. If no candidate wins more than 50 percent of the vote, a two person run-off will be held within 10 days.The polls pit incumbent President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, aged 71 and the islands'' strongman for the past 30 years, against five bitter rivals in a race seen as impossible to predict given an absence of reliable opinion polls.

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