Day: July 28, 2013

Jumhoree Party backtracks on challenging Nasheed’s candidacy in Supreme Court

Jumhoree Party (JP) Youth Wing President Moosa Anwar has backtracked on an earlier declaration that he would seek to challenge the Elections Commission’s decision to accept former President Mohamed Nasheed as a presidential candidate in the upcoming election through the Supreme Court.

Hours after making the announcement Anwar reversed his decision, stating that he had been advised to do so by Jumhoree Party officials after he was unable to convince an attorney to take the case.

Anwar lodged a similar lawsuit at the then interim Supreme Court contesting the candidacy of Nasheed prior to the 2008 presidential elections.

Anwar previously contested that Nasheed had been convicted and sentenced for theft in 2001 for taking documents that were to be disposed from Velaanaage, the house belonging to former President Ibrahim Nasir – without permission.

According to media reports at the time, Nasheed attended the auction of the house in October 2001 along with then Minister for Construction and Public Works Umar Zahir and his Assistant Director Ibrahim Fayaz.

Nasheed pulled out scraps of discarded paper from the waste of the partially demolished house, which he later packed and labelled for donation to the National Council of Linguistic and Historical Research.

“They laughed and joked as Nasheed pulled scraps of discarded paper from the dust and rubble of the partially demolished house. Minister Rashida Yusuf was delighted when she recognised former President Nasir’s children’s schoolwork that had been marked by her when she had been his teacher many years ago,” read a special report by the Maldives Culture website.

“These papers were collected by Nasheed who later packed and labelled them for donation to the National Council of Linguistic and Historical Research. It was at this point that Nasheed was arrested and held in solitary confinement for a month before being charged and found guilty of theft, and then sentenced to two and a half years exile in Raa Atoll, away from his family and children who live in Male’. The whole process was over in about two and half hours. Mohamed Nasheed had never admitted to the charges of theft, and the judge denied him his legal rights to present his case or respond to the charges made against him,” according to Maldives Culture’s account of the incident.

The prosecution succeeded in removing Nasheed from his seat in parliament –  a move labelled as politically motivated by various international human rights watchdogs.

An appeal in 2002 against the conviction was rejected by the government – which at the time was also the head of judiciary – despite the attorneys who examined the case pointing to grave flaws in the judgement.

Anwar meanwhile contended that the former president’s conviction was a hadd offence under Islamic Sharia and therefore, Nasheed did not satisfy the criteria set out in constitution for a person to hold the office of president.

Article 109(E) of the constitution demands that a person who holds the office of the president and those that are contesting for the post of presidency must “not have been convicted of a criminal offence and sentenced to a term of more than 12 months, unless a period of three years has elapsed since his release, or pardon for the offence for which he was sentenced”.

The then interim Supreme Court ruled in favour of the former president and declared the Elections Commission’s decision to accept his candidacy as valid, stating that Nasheed’s sentence was not a Hadd offence but a Ta’zir offence under Islamic Sharia.

Under Islamic Sharia law, unlike a Hadd offence which the punishment is prescribed in the holy Quran, Ta’zir offences are punishments applied to the other offences for which no punishment is specified in the Qur’an. It is a lesser degree of offence compared to Hadd offences, and the punishment varies depending on the discretion of the judge or the Qazi.

Anwar told Minivan News today that his latest petition at the Supreme Court would be based on the same grounds with which he challenged Nasheed’s candidacy in 2008. He claimed that he did not believe that Nasheed was eligible to contest in the presidential polls and would lodge the case as soon as the Elections Commission formally announced the candidates list.

Anwar’s submission comes after the five day deadline given by Election Commission regulations to challenge the candidacy of potential presidents. Anwar however had a different interpretation.

“Even back in 2008, I was able to file the case after the time frame given by the Elections Commission. Therefore, I do not believe there was any deadline to file such a case concerning a presidential candidate,” he told Minivan News.

Anwar said he had made several requests to attorneys registered at the Supreme Court to take up the case, but said they were all “too scared” over how “emotional” President Nasheed and his party Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) supporters are.

Therefore, Anwar claimed that he would go all by himself to the Supreme Court, and utilise his “knowledge of the law” during his years spent studying at the faculty of Sharia and Law of the Maldives National University.

“I think it is a problem that our lawyers, judges, police and the military are so afraid of a single individual or a political organisation,” Anwar said, referring to Nasheed and the MDP.

Meanwhile, President Nasheed’s Spokesperson MP Mariya Ahmed Didi told Minivan News that the Supreme Court had previously set strong precedents upholding the Article 60 of the constitutions which prohibits double jeopardy.

Overturning parliament’s deposing of Chair of Civil Service Commission Mohamed Fahmy, the Supreme Court upheld the principle of prohibiting double jeopardy, contending that Fahmy would receive two punishments for the same crime if he was to be removed from his position over the alleged sexual harassment case which is currently looked into by the Prosecutor General.

Therefore, Didi contended that she was confident that the Supreme Court would not accept the case as it was previously decided by the Supreme Court in 2008.

She further claimed that Nasheed’s rival in the election, resort tycoon and presidential hopeful Gasim Ibrahim, was behind the submission of the case, suggesting the move was a desperate ploy in the face of Nasheed’s broad electoral popularity.

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Elections Commission draws order of candidates on ballot paper

The Elections Commission has determined the order of candidates on the ballot paper for the 2013 presidential elections in September.

The four candidates from top to bottom are Gasim Ibrahim (Jumhoree Party), Dr Mohamed Waheed (independent, incumbent president), Abdulla Yameen (Progressive Party of the Maldives) and Mohamed Nasheed (Maldivian Democratic Party, former President).

Yameen and Gasim attended the ceremony to announce the ballot order, according to local media.

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MMC postpones appointing president after internal election stalemate

The appointment of a new president for the Maldives Media Council (MMC) has been postponed after an election held yesterday (July 27) ended in a tie between two candidates competing for the position.

In a statement, the MMC said that a date for a second election would be announced at a later date.

The election was held to appoint a successor to former MMC President Ibrahim Khaleel, who resigned from his post earlier this year.

Local media reported that MMC current Vice President Husham Mohamed and council member Abdulla Shinaan had both received the same number of votes yesterday.

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Fuvamulah MP Shifaq joins Jumhoree Party

MP for Fuvamulah Shifaq Mufeed has resigned from Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) and signed with the Jumhoree Party (JP) led by business tycoon and Maamigili MP Gasim Ibrahim.

Shifaq Mufeed held a press conference at the JP office after the signing ceremony and told the media that he did not have any issues with the PPM.

Mufeed said he had met with former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom and informed him of his decision to leave the PPM, and the reasons for his decision.

He claimed that the JP was established with knowledge and wisdom and that he believed development could only be achieved by joining it.

Mufeed also said that he had not joined the JP to gain any political benefits, and praised Gasim saying he wanted to join someone trying to bring changes to the nation.

He criticised Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) policies its manifesto, claiming that the MDP had failed to implement its pledges while in power.

On May 5, several weeks after the controversial transfer of power, Mufeed resigned from the MDP and joined the PPM.

At the time he publicly criticised the MDP, saying that its leadership was “in a coma” and disputing its call for early elections.

Mufeed also went against the MDP party line, attending the Majlis session in which the government’s nominees for the Vice-Presidency and the cabinet were confirmed by the coalition parties.

PPM presidential candidate Abdull Yameen described Mufeed’s departure as “irreparable”.

“Shifaq was active, sincere to the party and worked diligently for the election. He worked in our team without being weary and also worked hard for our party in parliament. It is an irreparable loss, even personally,” Yameen said, according to local media.

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Civil Court issues injunction against termination of Palm Beach Resort and Spa management agreement

The Civil Court has issued an injunction temporarily blocking a decision by the head leaseholder of the Palm Beach Resort and Spa to terminate a sub-lease agreement with the property’s current management.

The Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture has confirmed that the resort, based in Lhaviyani Atoll, is to remain under the management of Sun Sporting Holidays Limited until the conclusion of a court case to determine the legality of terminating the companty’s sub-lease agreement.

“Sun Sporting Holidays filed a case against the leaseholder and the court issued an order stating that the termination notice should be suspended until the court decided whether the termination is lawful of not,” Tourism Ministry Senior Legal Officer Faseeh Zahir explained to Minivan News.

“So, the ministry accordingly extended the temporary permit for resort operation to Sun Sporting Holidays,” he said.

No date has yet been set for the next hearing in the case, according to the ministry.

In a document (part 1, part 2, part 3) dated July 15, 2013,  Leaseholder Ibrahim Ali Maniku issued a notice of termination for the agreement between himself and Sun Sporting Holidays Limited to operate the Palm Beach Island Resort and Spa.

He wrote that the decision was based over concerns the company, as sub lessee, had failed to meet a number of safety standards and mandatory requirements set out by the Tourism Ministry and other local authorities.

Citing a Tourism Ministry report from April 11, 2013 – Number: 88­QAR/PRIV/2013/604 – the notice alleges that of 97 observations and violations noted by authorities at the time, 61 were considered serious and in need of immediate rectification.

According to the leaseholder, a maximum period of no more than three weeks from the publication of the report were provided for any short comings or violations raised by the ministry to be dealt with by management on the site.  The notice does not clarify if the required changes were made within the deadline.

The leaseholder however alleged that 14 “major violations” of the General Regulation for Food Establishment and Service of Maldives (2007/182/FSI) raised by the Tourism Ministry had not been corrected during a further inspection held a month later.

The notice claimed that Sun Sporting Holidays had also failed to register the property’s desalination plant with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as well as ensuring the resort’s power system was approved by the Maldives Energy Authority (MEA).

Concerns were also raised in the document over the EPA’s conclusions concerning the impact of severe erosion on the island’s coastline, which is claimed to have led to serious damage to the site’s ‘‘A la Carte’ restaurant as well as the loss of 17,953 square metres of land since the sub-lease agreement had come into force.

The notice claimed the sub lessee had additionally failed to comply with the EPA’s recommendations of relocating the resort’s reverse osmosis desalination) intake away from “the site where sewage is discharged”.

Sun Sporting Holidays was also accused by the leaseholder of failing to address recommendations by the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) to repair the resort’s fire alarm and fire hydrant systems that had previously been found to be out of order, while also failing to prepare and practice drills as part of an emergency fire plan.

When contacted by Minivan News this week, Sun Sporting Holidays said Palm Beach Resort and Spa remained under its management and was being operated as normal.

However, the company declined to comment further on the termination notice sent by the island’s leaseholder while legal action into the matter was ongoing.

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