Early results from the Maldives' first multi-party presidential election shows President Maumoon Maldives set for historic polls ...
S Asia leaders in Colombo summit ... Abdul Gayoom has failed to secure an outright victory.
With two-thirds of ballots counted, Mr Gayoom is ahead with 40%, while Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) leader Mohamed Nasheed is second with 26%.
If the trend is confirmed, the two will contest a run-off vote within 10 days.
President Gayoom, Asia's longest serving leader, has held power in the Indian Ocean archipelago for 30 years.
In August, he approved a law permitting multi-party elections, responding to years of political agitation for reform.
'Safe hands'
The votes were counted through the night on the Maldives' coral islands scattered across the deep blue sea, says the BBC's Roland Buerk in the capital, Male.
Mr Gayoom received nearly 40% of the 131,000 votes counted by Thursday morning, while Mr Nasheed was second with just over 26%, the election commission said. Four other candidates split the remainder of the vote.
The final results are expected later on Thursday. If no candidate gets more than 50% of the votes, a second round run-off between the top two will be held.
On Wednesday, voting was extended amid claims of irregularities. Polling was due to end at 2000 (1500 GMT), but electoral officials allowed everyone with an identity card to cast their ballot well after the official closing time.
Correspondents say the campaign was hard fought and lively, with noisy late-night rallies in Male. Candidates used sea planes to canvas for votes among the hundreds of islands that make up the nation.
President Gayoom urged voters to elect him for a seventh term because he was a "safe pair of hands" who would keep the economy - especially its important tourism sector - functioning smoothly.
The president argued that after 30 years of his leadership, the Maldives had 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.
Security around him was tight during the campaign. In January, an islander tried to stab Mr Gayoom, but he was fought off by a boy scout.
The president's main challenger, Mr Nasheed, is one of the president's fiercest critics and a former Amnesty International prisoner of conscience.
Ahead of the election, he accused Mr Gayoom of nepotism and "dirty tricks", including what he said was the false allegation that the MDP wanted to convert everyone to Christianity.
Wednesday's election followed reforms introduced after Mr Gayoom was accused of crushing pro-democracy protests in 2004.
Correspondents say there are many problems for the eventual winner 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.
(BBC)
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