How did Mohamed Nasheed win the 2008 Maldivian presidential election?

Mohamed Nasheed won the 2008 Maldivian presidential election by defeating the incumbent, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, with 54 percent of the vote.1

His victory followed a period of significant political reform in the Maldives. Beginning in 2003, the government initiated efforts to modernize the country's political system, which included the creation of a multiparty system. In 2008, a new constitution was adopted that established greater checks and balances and strengthened the judiciary and legislature.2

Nasheed, a former political prisoner and head of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), had spent years campaigning for democracy through nonviolent civil disobedience. The 2008 contest marked the country's first free, multicandidate presidential election, effectively ending Gayoom’s 30-year tenure in office.21