By Bryson Hull
(Reuters) - President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives, widely credited with bringing democracy to the Indian Ocean archipelago, resigned on Tuesday after weeks of opposition protests erupted into a police mutiny, and handed power to his deputy.
Nasheed, the Sunni Muslim nation's first democratically elected president, handed over to Vice-President Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik and said in a televised address "I believe that if the government were to remain in power it would require the use of force which would harm many citizens."
Protests last year over the faltering economy and scrambling ahead of this year's presidential election, have seen parties adopting hardline Islamist rhetoric and accusing...