The first multi-party presidential polls in the Maldives have opened with President Gayoom seeking a seventh term in power.

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President Gayoom is Asia's longest serving leader and has been in power for more than 30 years.

The polls are the culmination of reforms he introduced.

Polling began at 0400GMT and 208,000 people are eligible to vote.

Correspondents say that the campaign has been hard fought and lively, with noisy late-night rallies in the capital, Male.

There are many problems for the newly elected president to confront including a growing heroin problem among the young and the threat caused by rising sea levels which environmentalists say could wash the country away.

Candidates have used sea planes to canvas for votes among the hundreds of islands that makes up the archipelago.

President Gayoom has urged voters to back him because he is a "safe pair of hands" who will keep the country's economy - especially its important tourism sector - functioning smoothly.

The president argues that after 30 years of his leadership, the Maldives has become South Asia's richest economy, at the forefront of the international battle against climate change and on the verge of becoming a fully fledged democracy.

"If you want a leader who will protect these freedoms, our religion and our culture, then vote for me," he told supporters, promising "five more dynamic years".

President Gayoom's bedrock support is on the islands and he has been travelling by plane across the atolls to encourage people to vote.

Security around him has been tight - in January an islander tried to stab him, but he was foiled by a boy scout who fought the attacker.

'More trustworthy'

The main challenger to President Gayoom is Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) - one of his fiercest critics and a former Amnesty International prisoner of conscience.

"From this stage, it is about the personality, who is more credible, more trustworthy," Mr Nasheed said.

He said that his administration would comprise people from all parties and - unlike the president - he would ban his relatives from holding key government jobs.

"We counted close to 44 of his family members in senior posts," he said.

Mr Nasheed has also accused President Gayoom of "dirty tricks" including what he says is the false allegation that the MDP wants to convert everyone to Christianity.

The election follows reforms introduced after Mr Gayoom was accused of crushing pro-democracy protests in 2004.

If no candidate gets more than 50% of the votes, a second round of polling will be held.

(BBC)

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