MALE (Maldives): Thousands of Maldivians filed into a soccer stadium in the capital and waited patiently at schools and makeshift gazebos on remote islands to vote on Saturday in a referendum many hailed as the tiny Indian Ocean nation’s first real expression of democracy.

Voters were technically choosing a new form of government, but many saw the referendum as an informal vote of confidence on the 29-year-reign of Maldives President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, Asia’s longest-serving ruler.

“This election means freedom,” said Suheil Ismail, 41, after voting in a breezy, open room at a schoolhouse in the capital of Male.

Saturday’s voting appeared generally calm and courteous. At the national soccer stadium in Male, voters waited quietly in the shade of the stands for their turn to enter one of the 13 blue voting tents that ringed the field. Outside, scores of the city’s ubiquitous motorcycles stood neatly parked in a row, as nearby taxis ferried voters to the polling station.

Nasha Mohamed, 21, a health industry worker, said the election heralded the arrival of democracy to the islands.

“Before, the system was not established by the people. Now, the system will be established by the people, so it should be better,” she said after voting.

Gayoom is pushing for a US-style political system, with a powerful executive presidency for this Sunni Muslim nation of 300,000 people. The opposition, wary of giving too much power to another leader — or to Gayoom for yet another five-year term — backs a British-style parliament, which would be led by a more accountable prime minister.

Whatever the outcome, a peaceful, credible poll is expected to clear the way for the Maldives to adopt a new constitution in November and to hold its first multiparty elections next year.

By midday there were few reports of irregularities from government and opposition officials. International observers on far away islands reported orderly, and brisk, voting.

Gayoom — who has won six elections but never faced an opponent — has led the nation of 1,190 coral islands southwest of India through a period of explosive economic growth, fuelled by the 600,000 tourists a year who frolic on the sandy beaches of its remote island resorts.

But he has also been accused by opposition leaders, Western diplomats and international human rights groups of using torture and police crackdowns to stifle dissent.

The referendum campaign engulfed Male on Friday, as the ruling party and opposition Maldivian Democratic Party held competing rallies and covered the two-square kilometre capital island — home to 100,000 people — in banners.

“This has definitely been, on both sides, the most organised and most expensive campaign ever in the country,” said presidential spokesman Mohamed Shareef. “If ever people are going to be urged to get off their feet and vote, I think this is going to be it.”

The vote is the culmination of a reform drive Gayoom began in 2004 amid a wave of growing street protests.

But his other reform efforts over the past three years — legalising opposition parties and allowing them to print newspapers — have been followed by police crackdowns on public rallies and arrests of political dissidents.

In the run up to the referendum, concerns remained, especially after Gayoom’s internationally respected attorney general and his minister of justice resigned earlier this month saying the president was not serious enough about his reform efforts.Foreign Minister Ahmed Shaheed, another young reformer in the government, urged patience.

“To my judgment, this is a very sincere effort by the president to bring the Maldives into the 21st century,” he said.

The Maldives is by far the wealthiest — and most orderly — country in South Asia, with tourism accounting for a third of the economy and fishing making up a big chunk of the rest.

But half the population is under 18, reasonably well-educated and with few prospects for good jobs. Some young people have turned to drug use. In a reform aimed at empowering the youth, Gayoom lowered the voting age for the referendum to 18 from 21.The Maldives, whose highest point is only 2.4 meters above sea level, is also facing the threat that ocean levels, rising because of global warming, will eventually swallow it up. The islands were inundated by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, and were battered again earlier this year by storm surges.—AP