AT THE END OF HISTORY ALL YOU HAVE IS A CHOICE AMONG DEMOCRATIC FORMS:

Maldives President Wins Referendum (RAVI NESSMAN, 8/19/07, Associated Press )

President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom won an overwhelming victory Sunday in a referendum on the Maldives' future form of government, a poll seen as an informal vote of confidence in his three-decade rule of the tiny Indian Ocean nation.

The vote was expected to clear the way for the Sunni Muslim nation of 300,000 people to adopt a new constitution in November and hold its first multiparty elections next year.

Gayoom, criticized as a dictator by the opposition, sought a U.S.- style political system with a powerful executive presidency. The opposition, wary of keeping power consolidated, backed a British-style parliamentary system.

The referendum was seen as the first true expression of democracy in the Maldives' 43-year history.

It's revealing that the US ended up with the system that is more nearly monarchical.

Posted by Orrin Judd at August 19, 2007 9:08 AM