Resort tycoon and Jumhooree Party (JP) presidential candidate Gasim Ibrahim has said that fellow candidate Abdulla Yameen – who is contesting in the presidential poll as the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) candidate – will never be able to secure enough popular support to become the next president.
The Supreme Court’s decision to annul the first round of presidential elections came as a result of a petition filed by the JP, in which the party claimed the election had been flawed due to a number of discrepancies and irregularities in the voting process that amounted to a “systematic failure”.
Gasim’s new verbal attacks on Yameen came in a JP campaign rally held in Kanditheemu Island, Shaviyani Atoll, last night (October 16).
Speaking during the rally, the businessman-turned-politician told his supporters that Yameen had only won the PPM presidential primaries held earlier this year with the help of some 7,000 fraudulent votes he obtained by infiltrating opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) members into PPM ahead of the party’s internal election.
During the PPM primaries held earlier in March, Yameen edged out former PPM Interim Vice President Umar Naseer, taking 13,096 votes out of the total 20,546 votes cast in the party poll.
Challenging the elections result, citing electoral fraud, corruption and violence, Naseer subsequently filed a lawsuit at the Civil Court challenging the outcome of the poll. However, the Civil Court rejected the case and saw Naseer expelled from the PPM for “sowing discord amongst the party flanks”.
Yameen – who is the half-brother of Maldives’ former autocratic ruler Maumoon Abdul Gayoom – meanwhile dismissed all the allegations, while Naseer subsequently backed Gasim Ibrahim in the presidential poll.
Addressing yesterday’s rally, Gasim stated that the reason Yameen would not be able to garner the popular support of the people was that people had still not forgotten their mistreatment under Gayoom’s reign, in which Yameen had been a central figure.
Gasim also responded to the PPM’s allegations that he was “stuck” under the influence of advisers sympathetic to his political rivals, namely the MDP. He said that Yameen and the PPM making such remarks was due to the fact that he had refused to declare his support for Yameen in the event of a run-off duel between Yameen and MDP candidate Mohamed Nasheed.
He alleged that Yameen had been making such remarks to cover up his poor presidential campaign, during which he had failed to even visit the majority of the islands in the country.
“A mu’min cannot be bitten twice from one hole; hence I shall never support Nasheed”: Gasim
The resort tycoon also brushed off the ongoing public speculation that he would back Nasheed in a similar case of a run-off election.
The speculations began after Nasheed had a private meeting with Gasim Ibrahim in his own residence last month. Nasheed after the meeting told the press that they had met to discuss “discussed matters of national interest and maintaining stability and public order”.
“As I have said before, a Mu’min (Arabic terminology for pious Muslim) cannot be bitten twice from one hole. That is a narration of Prophet Muhammad. May Allah never show us a day where I would work to help [Nasheed] win the presidency,” Gasim told the rally.
Explaining the reason why he had backed Nasheed in 2008 presidential election – which Nasheed went onto win in the run-off election to become the fourth president of Maldives – was because he wanted to establish good governance and democratic principles in the country.
However, the Chairman of Villa Group said that it had been a “terrible” decision that ultimately caused more grief to the people.
The JP candidate also accused Nasheed of promoting Yameen over him in the presidential election because “Nasheed knows he would swiftly win the presidency should Yameen be contesting him in a possible run-off election”.
“If Abdulla Yameen goes to the second position, [Nasheed] knows he would easily win the second round of elections. If Gasim Ibrahim gets to the second or first position, he knows he must bow down saying bye-bye and good-bye to presidency,” Gasim told his supporters.
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Qasim can even tell destiny, of who is and who is not destined to win
Surely Qasim thinks it is written in his destiny to win in business, politics, and with women too. And ofcourse the Supreme Court is destined to make all rulings in his favour
Qasim is one man who is destined for it all
LOL
Gasim is of low IQ and he has a vastly overrated high opinion of himself. Quite the fool. Yameen should be in the same place as his half brother, behind bars.
Qasim, you may have been a good, compassionate and ground to earth person few years back. Definitely you are not now. You think you can rule Maldives with your money. Surely you managed to buy off few disgraced judges in the Supreme Court but you will never be able to buy the citizens as they're are moomins among them who will not get sold. Besides you are not presidential material. You are an island boy who was an errand boy in M.Endhirimaage and it was members of that family who made you rich. Everybody knows how.
Instead of bickering like two cats over leftover food from the dining table, shouldn't the also-rans be deluging the 'Supreme Court' with petitions to ensure that the election be postponed. They don't have much time left!
Andrew
if a business man become politician, serving people will become business. vote for the right person to serve the people.
Who is Gasim to say this. Gasims true image is visible now. You made the public suffer for your selfish needs. Who will vote for a man who uses judiciary to mock at the citizens saying they have cheated. You could not even name a few. You don't deserve any votes.
Instead of running to the supreme court to annul the first round of election results it would have been more favourable to accept the results and form a reliable constructive opposition during the next term of office.
Now the country and the rest of the world see him as a spoilt little rich man who cannot accept defeat when the overwhelming percentage of citizens didn't vote for him.
True democracy isn't about which party leads the country, but whether an effective government and opposition party debate issues within parliament for an outcome of events that benefit all citizens and not the few who voted for them.
This man has proven beyond doubt that unless things go his way the rest of the country can suffer. Time will tell within the next few weeks whether this man thinks of himself or the country first.
Accepting defeat gracefully is the best way to judge a man's character on whether he should represent the country in the future on the international circuit, because so far the rest of the world sees him as a dictator in the making who will get very little international help to solve the problems the Maldives will face in the future.
Qasim will not accept defeat even when voted out, which is almost certain. The last thing Maldivians want is a silly man as a head of state
The Indians would have a challenge in making Qasim accept defeat
You can see Gasim's game plan clearly here.
(1) He will never go into a coalition with Yameen as a 3rd placed candidate. Partly, 'cos he hates Yameen's guts, but also 'cos he knows Yameen has got no chance of winning the popular vote.
(2) Gasim knows he cannot beat Nasheed and MDP for 1st place. He is hoping that by annulling the first round (illegally of course), he can step on Yameen's head and get into 2nd place.
(3) If he gets to 2nd place, he knows Yameen will come begging and that's just how Gasim would like it to be.
(4) Gasim will never get into a coalition with Nasheed and MDP. If he comes 2nd, he will gather everyone else and hope to beat Nasheed and MDP in the final round. Would that happen? I seriously doubt it.
(5) What will be Gasim's fate? He will have lost a lot of money for nothing at the end of the day. He will claim he's a "Mu'min" whilst being the biggest seller of alcohol and pork in the country! A Munafiq's mouth can never be shut.
@Addu.
Read points (1) and (5) of your post and revise (4).
Qasim's ticket out of this is Nasheed and it's almost a done deal anyway. Qasim is one of the most powerful people in this country and his lapdogs such as the Chaandhaneemaage clan and their trained grizzly bear Ali Waheed stand at the front-lines of the Yellow Force.
No doubt it's a win-win for Qasim. Get to second and try and pool the anti-Nasheed vote and win OR get to 3rd, throw his support to Nasheed and recover his losses.
Gasim is spot on, Yameen feels he is entitled – destined for the Presidency.
Yameen is a sulky, pathetic, brooding loser. When he feels offended by something, he hides away and sulks like a child throwing a brooding temper tantrum, and this makes him a completely lazy, useless person. Where the hell will he be as a President when important decisions need to be made and he is sulking, won't come out of his room! Grow up, Yamin, we all get hurt, but only children can afford to sulk so lazily like that! When Yamin is hurt, normally by petty stupid things because he has the arrogance of a vein glorious princess, he refuses to answer his phone or speak to anyone, sometimes for days on end.
Also, he is repugnantly arrogant and rude. He has this deeply hostile chip on his shoulder about who the hell knows what, and it makes him feel the world owes him something, like he thinks he has the right to bully others because he had it tough.
Well I say, grow up Yamin, nothing gives you more right to behave like a lazy, spoilt, brooding child than anybody else. Would you have let your senior Staff get away with not responding to you for days on end! But you do it to others, you hypocrite! You better snap out of it and drop the attitude! We’ve all been victims at some point in our lives, but that does not give us the right to humiliate others, you have only gotten away with it because you have been able to, the more powerful you become, the harder you will fall!
Yamin! If you don't pay back that oil money which belongs to the people, a "spirit" - you can call it - the Angel of Death - will hunt you down in your sleep and make you pay the debt with your soul! mark my words, punk, for every action there is a positive and negative reaction! not even you can escape Divine Laws Yameen!
hahaha..Ahmed Bin Addu Suvadheeb from Maladeef. hehe.. excellent comment...i assume the same as well..
For which ever direction it takes; gasim's guilt also will play a role in his taking sides... obviously he has a tad bit of dignity to stop himself from joining a drug lord or maybe it still selfishness combined with immoral wishes..
For each of our candidates, it is vital for each to win this election...i will add "whatever the cost" here because the end will be nasty. the start of our new governement will be aligned with court cases, sermons, warnings, etc and even though we assume this is the worst it will get, the worse is yet to come..
The extremists will mount on a never ending jihad routine. The oppositions will fight within and outside parliament and this small nation will have much of gang activities. Gang activities started and fueled by the country's dirty politicians.. Control will no longer be in their hands.
It will take more than money and police to set things straight. I am hoping gasim,yamin, maumoon and 5% leave the state.. if they ever loved the pple..
The misconception that Gasim had been the only helping hand in the country for the pple is a huge mistake.. Gasim;s world bank and other bank loans which have so far kept him on the boat is subject to these "helping hand" as we all know.. he cannot claim he has been heling the pple.. but rather helping himself become richer day by day. With Yamin out of the way, the gang activities and street drugs will decline..
A mu'min is a person who has a lot of religious belief, believes in quran and prophets and abides by them sentimentally, physically and emotionally. I have seen this man totally drunk on alcohol.it is his everyday practice. While many small resorts pay their staff a worthy sum of service charge, gasim's staff are paid lower than sheep being fed before a sacrifice. That is inhuman. he maybe a "MOO-MAN", definitely not a mu'min
The word Mu'min used, yet another example of how Islam is used to divide, destroy, weaken the Maldives. Using Islam as a weapon against your own people to fulfill your lust for power is what is destroying the unity of the Maldives, and will therefore become the undoing of the sovereignty of the Maldives.
I am told often that the Islamic Religion, as part of your culture, is a force for social cohesion, a semiotic social glue, so to speak. If religion is not respected and observed, and irreligious elements destroyed, I am told, the Maldives will lose it's unity, and therefore, it's sovereignty.
But, to be frank, I have only seen Religion in the Maldives as a social knife, a semiotic chainsaw, a weapon used to climb to power which is cutting the Maldives apart.
This is putting people off religion.
Religion is meant to be a source of strength for the oppressed, a source of solace for the suffering, as Allah is THE MERCIFUL. In the Maldives, authorities, or people wanting power, should only speak about religion if it is to express the Mercy of Allah, as that is what will give Maldives sovereignty. If you need to rebuke a person because they are unjust, do so, but don't bring this extra religious dimension into it.
The power to express Divine wrath against evil is something Allah gives to the oppressed of the Earth to fight for social justice, as a special Mercy, it is not the prerogative of the powerful to use Divine Power to serve their own greedy lust! MASSIVE Punishment awaits ALL who abuse, misuse divine power in this way!
A Sharia Judge can judge somebody for violation against the rights of other people, life, property, as stipulated in Islamic sources, but it is up to Allah to deal with violations against HIS OWN RIGHTS.
why Qasim will loose
1. JP has not had a primary - the clearest sign of party dictatorship
2. JPs local election record is poor - proof of poor leadership
3. JP cannot be identified with an ideology - only money driven
4. Maldivain expect a bit more than Joseph Estrada to be their president
@ben plewright..ur right there..!
I will have to hail maumoon for his knowledge on Quran and then for going against its fundamantalism and using it for his own gain at all times.
When pple listen to an Azhar university educated person, they all tend to beleive atleast most of what is heard. Back then. but the bitter truth is that he, including many others such as Shaheem, Imran and such extremists have been using religion to control the masses in the country.
The end result is disgust towards such pple and also evidently loosing their beleif along the way. I have heard shaheem say once (when asked by journalists to justify reason why he said some things)that he said so becz it was the way it ws in quran. for me, i beleive no one has the right to blam quran and they shud take responsibility in whatever they say.
Al munafiqeen wud be the very term i wud use to describe current islamic leaders in the state.. if Imran is thinking that Gasim wud hand over eduction ministry to them IF elected, would be a clear misunderstanding. Villa college currently also does not employ any extremist teachers either.. It has been common practice in Maldives to sell religion for money..
Pakistan, syria, iraq, etc got their chance to choose between democracy and extremism who blundered into the chaos they are in by themselves. I call all Maldivians to be aware of the changes.. of what we are voting and asking for and to decide for humanity, justice and a system through which they can be cared for..
the future is in our hands. choose wisely
Maybe i am mentally disturbed, but everytime i see gasim picture or video or in person, the first image that comes to my mind is the day he was involved in the coup organizing., specifically the point where he kept hugging every one in the coup room in bandaara koshi. It depicted a certain emotional aura from him.. showing he was so desperate towards what had happened earlier that day.. he can fool the pple with his mouth we can see what and how exactly he was.. he was among the leaders of the coup.. would some one tell me what the punishment in islam is for coup?
"hauleemu nethama thaaku zamaanaai ekuvegen.
Than dhaane e budhdheeege magun ekkibaa vegen".
@kobakoba: There are contradictory Ahadith about "coup's." A Hanbali scholar, searching the most reliable isnad, would condemn a coup. In Sahih Muslim Book of Government it says: If bai'ah (pledge of allegiance) is given to one Imam, and another challenges, kill the challenger. Of course most Muslims would agree that such harsh verdicts are not to be applied today. Modern Muslims would explain that such Hadith have to be taken in the context of a warfaring, barbaric society, where challenge to a leader equated to MASSIVE loss of life.
Some Hadith seem to imply it is legitimate to overthrow a tyrant IF it would save more life to do so.
Others state that you need to obey the ruler no matter how corrupt he is so long as he orders and peforms prayers.
My belief is that the underlying principle is that Islam demands social justice, but also preservation of life. In a minute I will cut/paste relevant Hadith in a following post.
The Hadith I will quote implies that the people have to prevent an oppressor from doing wrong, but that the priority is the preservation of life.
An electoral democracy is the best way to fulfill the principles and demands of Islam in a relatively modern society like the Maldives.
However, seems the buggers want to throw the book out of context at us to demonize, destroy us, we could also throw the book at them out of context to accuse them of deserving the death penalty for challenging the leader. But out of respect for our Holy principles, a respect which THEY lack, we will try not to stoop to their low down sacriligieous level and degrade our religion like that.
Abu Sa’id al-Khudri said, “I heard the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, say, ‘Whoever of you sees something wrong should change it with his hand; if he cannot, then with his tongue; if he cannot, then with his heart, and that is the weakest form of belief.’” [Muslim]