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MALE, Tuesday (AFP) Maldives President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom has won yet another term to lead South Asia's most expensive tourist destination, but his government accused the BBC of trying to undermine his re-election.

Gayoom, who has been president since November 1978, won 102,909 of the votes, or 90.28 percent, to win Friday's referendum and confirm his unanimous election by parliament last month.

Final result figures released by the elections commission here early Monday showed 11,083 Maldivians voted against Gayoom while 77 percent of the 148,271-strong electorate turned out to vote. At previous votes, the turnout has been over 80 percent.

Maldivian voters were asked to mark a "yes" or "no" to Gayoom in the second and final stage of the election process, which began with the 50-member Majlis, or parliament, electing him to be the sole candidate at the referendum.

The Maldivian Ministry of Information, Arts and Culture said in a statement that the BBC had made "illicit attempts to manipulate the outcome of the presidential election."

"BBC repeatedly aired an interview conducted with two Maldivians, who misrepresented the truth and tried to disseminate dis-information about the presidential elections and related procedures in the Maldives," it said. There was no immediate reaction from the BBC, which had also interviewed Gayoom.

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