In 2008, in the first-ever multiparty elections, voters ended three decades of autocratic rule by Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.

ECONOMIST: Rival leaders bicker, and vie for help from India

Mr. Nasheed has said he ordered the arrest because the judge was blocking a corruption investigation against Mr. Gayoom.

WSJ: Maldives Arrests Former President Nasheed

The Maldives has seen political unrest in recent years in protest at the 29-year rule of President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.

ECONOMIST: Politics this week

Mr Gayoom's influence, he says, is merely routine, as a coalition ally.

ECONOMIST: Rival leaders bicker, and vie for help from India

It is the first time President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who has been in power for 30 years and is seeking a seventh term, will face opponents at the polls.

BBC: Maldives teachers strike over pay

Abdul Gayoom, president of the tiny island republic of the Maldives, has been in office since November 1978 and has been elected again for a fifth consecutive five-year term.

ECONOMIST: Letters

Mr Nasheed's Maldives Democratic Party (MDP) said the president's resignation had been engineered by "rogue elements" of the police and military, along with supporters of former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.

BBC: New Maldives leader Waheed Hassan vows calm transition

Mr Nasheed, a reformist who spent years in jail or under house arrest, came to power in 2008 after beating long-time President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom in the country's first ever polls.

BBC: Maldives report rejects Nasheed coup claims

His supporters claim his ouster was masterminded by armed forces still loyal to Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, a former autocratic president who ruled the country for three decades before Mr. Nasheed came to power.

WSJ: Maldives Arrests Former President Nasheed

Mr. Gayoom has denied wrongdoing.

WSJ: Maldives Arrests Former President Nasheed