Male, Maldives (CNN) - The new president of the Republic of Maldives wants to move - throughout his country.

Among them: The very likely possibility that the Maldives will sink under water if the current pace of climate change keeps raising sea levels.

The Maldives is an archipelago of almost 1,200 coral islands located south-southwest of India. Most of the islands are only 4.9 feet (1.5 meters) above sea level.

The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has predicted a rise in sea levels of at least 7.1 inches (18 cm) at the end of the century.

The island was badly hit by the December 2004 tsunami, which killed an estimated 273,800 people and left thousands missing across Asia and Africa.

In the Maldives itself, at least 82 people were killed and 26 missing from a population of just over 270,000, according to the Maldives Disaster Management Center. Sixty-nine islands were completely flooded and 30 other islands flooded half.

The capital of Male were also flooded, although the sea wall protected from further devastation. The government has estimated that building a barrier like the rest of the country would cost too much.

And so the tourists, which has white sandy beaches that attract well-paying attention to the West wants to put aside some of the billions of dollars a year it receives from tourism and spend that money on the purchase of a new homeland.

Nasheed ’s government has said it has approached with the idea of several countries and found that

Land owned by Sri Lanka and India are the possibilities because the countries have similar cultures, cuisine and climate as the Maldives. Australia is also being examined because of the vast idle land that is owned.

Climate change is not the only challenge facing the new president will face, though. Other thorny issues include rising unemployment, corruption and a staggering epidemic of drug use.  According to some estimates, one in three young people use drugs in the Maldives. What country would want to takethose stats on?

Maldives also worry that their tiny nation of 370,000 secular Muslims could fall prey to the scope of Islamic radicals. An attack in Male, attributed to Islamic extremists, wounding 12 tourists in September 2007.

Nasheed said that work to achieve affordable housing and medical care for all. Twenty-one percent of the population lives below the poverty line.

Nasheed, 41 years old, a time journalist, was one of the fiercest critics of former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who came to power in 1978 and ruled the Maldives for 30 years. He won all six previous elections as the only candidate on the ballot.

Nasheed said Gayoom who ruled with an iron fist, crushing dissent, the accumulation of wealth and stacking his administration with friends and family.

Gayoom ’s critics say that his government implements a system of’ apartheid ‘tour which banned most of the Maldives nearly 90 luxury resorts.

Shortly before election day, an auditors’ report said that millions of dollars were improperly accounted for by Gayoom ’s government. The results are disputed.

Nasheed was arrested several times in the past 15 years and held as a political prisoner.

Five candidates to challenge Gayoom presidency in the elections held on October 9.

Gayoom said he needed seventh term of five years to see through the reforms put in place. But critics said Gayoom instituted democratic reforms - and legalized political parties - only after violent protests in 2004 and 2005.

Gayoom Nasheed and ended in a runoff - Nasheed win with 54 percent of the votes to Gayoom ’s 46 percent in the race Oct. 28.

As the clock struck 12 hours, Tuesday, Gayoom quietly left the presidential office.

Maldives took to the streets in a celebration that brings in the early hours of the morning. Residents danced to the beats of local bands and feast on rice and lamb.

That the cover of Men’s roads paved with red and green flag of the Maldives and the yellow flag Nasheed ’s Democratic Party of Maldives.

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