Gasim Ibrahim’s revelations of pressure from within the judiciary and the security services to endorse President Abdulla Yameen’s candidacy vindicate allegations of a “coup d’etat” on February 7, 2012, Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) MP Imthiyaz Fahmy ‘Inthi’ has said.
The Jumhooree Party (JP) leader said last week that he was urged to support Yameen by judges as well as police and army officers.
Gasim had claimed at a press conference on Tuesday (June 17) that he decided to back the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) candidate in the presidential election run-off in November 2013 after the requests “for the sake” of the institutions.
Speaking to Minivan News, MP Imthiyaz noted that the MDP had maintained that “sections of the judiciary, the military and the police were part of the coup and the subsequent unlawful and unconstitutional interference in the presidential and the parliamentary elections.”
“Now this truth is coming straight from the horse’s mouth,” the re-elected MP for Maafanu North observed.
“If the judiciary, the military and the police were to decide who should hold the office of the president then it gives a horrifying message. And in fact it happened as they demanded, thus people’s power was violated.”
Kingmaker
Gasim had said that judges as well as police and army officers had met him personally and appealed to him to support the PPM candidate.
“Otherwise we had been silent [on endorsing a candidate] and neutral. We made that decision after considering the unrest and instability and possible harm to the public caused by the rising political tension,” the business tycoon had said.
He also claimed to have spent MVR20 million on Yameen’s campaign in the three days leading up to the run-off polls on November 16.
After finishing in third place with 23.27 percent of the vote in the repeat first round of the presidential election, Gasim initially announced that the JP would not back either candidate.
However, the JP’s council reversed its decision to remain neutral following a meeting between Gasim and PPM leader Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.
Former President Mohamed Nasheed had emerged the frontrunner in the first round revote with 46.93 percent while Yameen polled 29.73 percent.
After endorsing Yameen, Gasim told the press that the JP decided to form a coalition with the PPM in order to “[overcome] the challenges faced by police, military and the judiciary, to save them from undeserved allegations made against them by certain groups, to maintain the independence of this Ummah [Islamic community] and nation, and for the protection of our religion and motherland.”
Meanwhile, at last week’s press conference, JP Deputy Leader Ilham Ahmed insisted that the police, army, and judiciary would “bear witness” to the truth of Gasim’s claim.
However, online news outlet CNM has since reported that the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) has denied asking the JP leader to back Yameen while the police declined to comment.
Troubled polls
Last year’s presidential election was marred by repeated delays, multiple cancellations, a Supreme Court-ordered annulment and police obstruction.
On October 7, the Supreme Court annulled the results of the first round of the polls conducted on September 7 in a controversial 4-3 decision – citing a confidential police report – despite unanimous positive assessment of the polling by more than a thousand domestic and international election observers.
While the secret police report alleging irregularities – which was not shared with the Election Commission’s (EC) defence lawyers – was dismissed by a UN expert review, the credibility of the evidence cited by the apex court was also questioned by the Human Rights Commission of Maldives after it emerged that some citizens were incorrectly recorded as being deceased.
The Supreme Court’s decision came after Gasim sought annulment of the first round results alleging widespread electoral fraud.
In what was the EC’s sixth attempt in two months to conduct polls, Yameen narrowly defeated Nasheed with 51.39 percent of the vote (111,203) to the MDP candidate’s 48.61 percent (105,181).
In January, Nasheed told reporters that the MDP suspected electoral fraud using fake national identity cards in November’s polls, contending that non-existent people were added to the database at the Department of National Registration (DNR) as part of “efforts to rig the election through the Supreme Court.”
MP Imthiyaz meanwhile noted that Gasim has now “publicly admitted” that judges met the business tycoon seeking his endorsement of the PPM candidate.
“What do you expect when an election case goes before the court at the request of the court itself? This was how the country’s democracy was completely destroyed,” Imthiyaz said.
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Now why would so called independent institutions such as the MNDF, MPS and the Judiciary ask Gasim to back a certain candidate? Are these institutions not so independent after all or could Gasim be lying now that he has been kicked out of the coalition? Hmm...the latter makes more sense, since the former relates to our esteemed institutions. How can there be any corruption in these respectable institutions eh 😉
Gasim is crying now. He has admitted that he trampled on the wishes of the people of the country for the "sake of the institutions".
Gasim needs therapy to cure him of sever psychological issues. Indeed, Gasim's wisest decision would have been to have remained neutral, as hindsight confirms now. It's too late to cry about that now. Gasim sold the nation to the "institutions".
There are lessons to be learned from countries that transformed into democracies from long term dictatorships. One of these is Spain. After a bitter bloody civil war and decades of dictatorship, the country transformed into a modern democracy through a very careful and masterful approach. Food for thought...
Gasim seems to be in control of the Military.
Whats the point of a Governing system if all institutions (Judiciary, funding for MPs and Paries, media) are in the hands of a single man in a tiny country.
Is that fair and democratic?
Now you know why Villa does so much PR charities.. Even Mafia does that.
One day "Maldivian revolution" will happen.
everyone has the right to ask everyone to support who ever he wanted to get the support.
Judiciary is not requesting but the people in the judiciary have the right to vote and they have the right to request or ask from anyone to support what they want to support.
I don't like Nasheed to be elected and I tell everyone to not to vote for him and now 80% of the people will say no to Nasheed,
Maldives is not Villa company. Neither should Maldives be governed like Villa
Please stop making a joke of the Maldives.
Gasim can say anything we all are with him he is over national hero. he has done lots to the peoples of Maldives till today no body has done. why MDP is making noise. See what damage and loss to the country and peoples MDP has done by bringing GMR. hell with Naseed and MDP.
Hero if you can still defend the judiciary of this country, knowing that they are completely politically biased towards Maumoon, well then stop talking about development of the country and even about what development we are going to see without GMR. Sure the money we would have had to pay to GMR is more visible as it is written in black and white, but what a corrupt judiciary has cost us to date and what it is going to cost us even in the next 25 years in terms of development and finance, would be far more than what we have had to pay GMR. So kicking GMR out isn't enough if you want true development in this country, you also need to call for judicial reform and criticize them just as much as you are criticizing MDP and Nasheed for being corrupt. Why be selective? Corruption is corruption eh.
Its not MDP who had done the deal with GMR and Its Nasheed and few of his thugs.
MDP need to get independent from Nasheed first. There is nothing good the dictator can do for a collective benefit of the party .
Silly ol' Anni is a peacenik that I have several disagreements with. But the reason why I respect him is because he had the guts to put a lethal chokehold on the golhaa gang's drug trafficking and child porn business.
And that is a crime that Hero and his ilk can never forgive him for.