Male, Oct 29 : Maldives President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, Asia''s longest serving leader and a campaigner against rising sea levels on Wednesday lost power to a former political prisoner Mohammed Nasheed in the first-ever democratic presidential polls in the island nation.

President Gayoom, 71, won the first round this month, but failed to secure the 50 per cent needed for outright victory

Nasheed of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) had won 54.25 per cent of the votes cast in on Tuesday''s presidential run-off as against 45.75 per cent by Gayoom, election officials said.

Male/Colombo – Maldives President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom has been defeated in the presidential elections ending his record as one of Asia's longest-serving leaders, officials in Male said Wednesday.

In Tuesday's run-off election, Gayoom, 71, was denied a seventh consecutive term and will be succeeded by Mohamed "Anni" Nasheed, a 41-year-old activist who was once imprisoned by Gayoom's government.

Colombo  - An election run off is to take place in the Maldives, following the failure of President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom to win a decisive victory in the country's first multi-party presidential election on Wednesday, officials have said.

President Gayoom, who has ruled the Maldives for the past 30 years, gained around 40 per cent of the vote, followed by the leading opposition candidate Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldivan Democratic Party (MDP).

A precise date for the runoff has yet to be decided.