Month: August 2013

JP, PPM file complaint against EC Legal Director for “political tweeting”

The Elections Commission (EC) has said it is investigating complaint filed by the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) and the Jumhoree Party (JP) against its Legal Director Haneefa Khalid, for alleged political tweeting ahead of the upcoming Presidential Elections.

The JP and PPM filed multiple complaints at the Elections Complaint that included Khalid’s “politicised” tweets. Other complaints involved a group of Indian IT specialists working at the commission, and issues concerning voter registration.

Speaking to local media after filing the complaint, PPM Spokesperson MP Ahmed Mahloof said the party’s main concern was that Khalid was the wife of Dr Ahmed Ashraf, who contested the by-election of parliament’s Ungoofaaru constituency on a Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) ticket following the murder of sitting MP Dr Afrashim Ali. The election was won by the PPM by a narrow margin of 81 votes.

Other grounds for the complaint filed against Khalid, Mahloof said, included her allegedly “politicised” tweets, and singled out one he claimed had offended PPM President and 30 year autocratic ruler, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.

“When Gayoom got the [country’s highest civilian honour] Haneefa tweeted that the award was ‘tainted with blood’,” Mahloof said. Gayoom was awarded the Nishaan Ghaazeege Izzaiytheri Veriyaa (NGIV) on the Maldives’ independence day this year.

Minivan News observed that Khalid did not make the remarks herself, but had instead shared a YouTube video of a report on Gayoom’s award aired by opposition-aligned TV station Raajje Television, titled “The Highest Honour tainted in blood”.

Mahloof told the media that it was completely “unacceptable” for a person in such a position to tweet such political remarks and claimed this would affect the credibility of the presidential elections.

Speaking during a press conference on Sunday, the Vice President of Elections Commission Ahmed Fayaz said  the commission would look into the matter and would take administrative action should it find the need to do so.

“We have received the complaint. We will take action after looking into it,” he said.

On the same day, local newspaper Haveeru reported that the Attorney General’s office had begun probing into a disciplinary case concerning Khalid following a complaint filed against her by the police.

Deputy Solicitor General Ahmed Usham told the newspaper that no comment could be give to media as the case is still under investigation.

Haveeru claimed the police filed the complaint after Khalid “addressed the police disrespectfully” while she was inside Male’ jail meeting a client whom she had been representing in court.

It further alleged that Khalid had been acting as the defense counsel of a man accused of robbing US$122,000 from the Relax Inn Hotel, and had yelled “Money, money” at the officers present at the jail implying that police had robbed the hotel themselves and were attempting to frame her client.

A police media official told Minivan News the matter had been “brought to the attention of the Attorney General’s Office”.

“Yesterday, lawyer Haneefa Khalid while inside Male’ jail disrespectfully addressed the police officers and therefore we have brought this to the attention of the Attorney General’s office,” said the official.

Minivan News was unable to contact Haneefa Khalid at time of press.

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Minor arrested in connection with July murder of 31 year-old man

Police have arrested a minor in connection with the murder of Ahmed Nizar, 31, of Woodland House in Gan, Laamu Atoll, who was killed on July 14, 2013.

In a statement issued today police said the minor was arrested on Saturday August 10 after an arrest warrant was obtained from the court.

Police had previously arrested five persons in connection with the case.

On July 15 police arrested a 21 year-old man while a 22 year-old man was arrested on July 17. Two other men aged 26 and 22 were also arrested in connection with the case.

Police said the court had extended the suspects’ pretrial detention period to 15 days and they have been brought Male’ for investigation.

The Police Serious and Organized Crime Department and Laamu Gan Police Station are investigating the case, police said.

Ahmed Nizar was attacked in the early hours of July 14 while he was travelling to Gan from Kahdhoo, after receiving some football jerseys from the Kahdhoo Post Office.

At the time police said the investigation had revealed that Nizar was attacked with wooden planks and iron bars. Police recovered the murder weapons.

A special team of police were deployed to Gan to investigate the murder. Police said the victim had no record of criminal activity.

The attack on Nizar is the second murder on Gan this year. On March 14 , a 51 year-old man was attacked with an axe while he was sleeping in a house. He died shortly after the attack having suffered serious head injuries.

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Police charge three people for drinking alcohol in 2010

Police have submitted for prosecution a case involving three people alleged to have possessed and consumed alcohol almost three years ago, on October 28, 2010, reports local media.

Police arrested Ahmed Minthaz, 45, Ahmed Ahlam, 42 and Risma Umar, 23 in a rented apartment in Male’, after discovering three glasses and one bottle of alcohol on a table in the room. A further four bottles of alcohol were discovered in the apartment, police stated.

The three suspects tested positive for alcohol during a breathalyzer test, police said, and the case was finally sent for prosecution on July 30, 2013.

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Elections Commission confirms ballot boxes in New Delhi and Singapore

The Elections Commission (EC) has confirmed that ballot boxes will be present in New Delhi and Singapore, after both venues received the minimum number of registrations, reports local media.

Expatriate Maldivians who have re-registered to vote in locations outside their home islands will be able to vote in New Delhi, Trivandrum, Colombo, Kuala Lumpur, London and Singapore.

The EC will deploy 480 ballot boxes in the election, including 122 in Male and 55 on resorts and prison islands.

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DRP denies holding coalition talks with President Waheed’s election rivals

The government-aligned Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) has rejected allegations it ever considered forming a coalition to back a candidate other than President Dr Mohamed Waheed.

Local media quoted senior figures in the Jumhoree Party (JP) of accusing DRP Leader Ahmed Thasmeen Ali of unsuccessfully trying to become the running mate of its presidential candidate MP Gasim Ibrahim, before opting to side with the incumbent in May this year.

JP candidate Gasim, one of the country’s highest-profile business figures, has since formed his own coalition with the religious conservative Adhaalath Party (AP) and Dhivehi Qaumee Party (DQP) after they both defected from President Waheed’s ‘Forward with the nation’ coalition in July.

“Last minute” decision

DRP Spokesperson Ibrahim Shareef today categorically denied that discussions had ever been held over backing any other candidate for this year’s election, claiming the decision to stand in a coalition with President Waheed has been made by the party’s council at the “last minute”.

“We were originally trying to run on our own [as a party] right up to the last minute,” he said. “However, it was decided to sacrifice [the party’s] ambitions for the sake of the nation.”

Shareef claimed that in comparison to the three other candidates preparing to contest this year’s election, President Waheed was not promising policies that could not be delivered under the current economy.

He accused Gasim, Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) candidate Abdulla Yameen and opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) candidate former President Mohamed Nasheed of being “very unrealistic” with their campaign promises.

“We are careful to make promises within the resources we have available and within the budget,” Shareef added.

Both the PPM and MDP have previously accused President Waheed of making development pledges outside the approved budget, while also alleging he had been using state resources to campaign for his own Gaumee Ihthihad Party (GIP).

According to Shareef, the ‘Forward with the nation’ also faced notable challenges in terms of limited party financing compared to other parties, accusing both the AP and DQP of defecting to Gasim’s coalition simply to secure an increased campaign budget.

“They went to the person who has money, while we are concerned with running an effective campaign,” he added.

Shareef said this year’s election was very much a “money game” that had affected the wider campaign atmosphere in the country, notably in how individual candidates were being portrayed in the media.

He expressed particular concern at the role the country’s media – often owned and controlled by political parties and business men – played in the electoral process.

Shareef argued that with media in the Maldives controlled by just a few powerful figures, it was difficult in the country’s fledgling democracy to effectively explain a candidate’s individual stand to the “ordinary public” and therefore allow them to make an informed decision and hold public figures to account.

On the campaign trail

A source in President Waheed’s campaign team told Minivan News that the defection of the AP and DQP from the ‘Forward with the nation’ coalition had required little change to the coalition’s campaign strategy, and that the party’s internal polling data suggested this had had a negligible impact on the coalition’s election chances.

The source said the departure of the AP in particular had actually increased the party’s support among the under 35 demographic.

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Leaked photo allegedly depicts Deputy Transport Minister in Colombo casino

Local media outlet Channel News Maldives (CNM) has published a leaked photograph circulating on social media apparently showing Deputy Minister of Transport Ibrahim Nazim in a casino.

The report claimed that the photograph was taken in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The television behind the individual alleged to be Nazim in its bottom corner says “Welcome to Bellagio”, a Colombo casino.

CNM also reported that police were currently verifying the matter.

However, a police spokesperson disputed the claim stating that police had not formally “received any reports regarding such a case”.  He also refused to comment on CNM’s allegation that police were trying to verify the authenticity of the photograph.

The contentious photo believed to be of former PPM activist, Deputy Minister of Transport Ibrahim Nazim (far right)

MvYouth, an online newspaper affiliated with the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) – Nazim’s former party prior to his defection to Gasim Ibrahim’s Jumhoree Party – reported that the photograph had been taken while Nazim was on a campaign trip to Colombo with the JP.

Nazim was considered a senior PPM activist who backed the party’s ousted Deputy Leader Umar Naseer during the party’s presidential primaries, but subsequently gave his full support to Abdulla Yameen after he defeated Naseer in the election.

Following Umar Naseer’s announcement of his support for Gasim, Nazim resigned from his position as PPM’s Youth Wing leader and signed up with the JP, backing Gasim’s candidacy.

The photograph was leaked less than a week after the JP launched its “Religion and Nationalism Policy”, pledging that a future government under Gasim Ibrahim would strengthen Islamic faith and nationalism, particularly among young people.

Minivan News was unable to get a comment from Nazim as his phone was switched off at time of press.

The Jumhoree Party has meanwhile dismissed the leaked photograph as a “fake” claiming that it was PPM “propaganda”.

Speaking to Minivan News, JP Spokesperson Moosa Rameez claimed that “in this technological world, editing a photo is very simple.”

“You will have seen a man wearing his underwear outside flying on TV who is called Superman. You will have seen a man releasing web from his wrists called Spiderman. See all these are made and they are videos. We are talking about a still photograph here. How simple would it be to edit one?” Rameez told Minivan News.

Rameez said he believed the PPM was behind the whole scandal and was attempting to take revenge after Nazim left the party to support the Jumhoree Alliance.

“When a man’s wife whom he loves gets a divorce and leaves him, he will start talking thinks bad about her. Likewise, that young boy Jameel (PPM presidential candidate Yameen’s running mate, Dr Mohamed Jameel) cannot digest the decision. Why else would they try to defame someone who worked with them before?” he said.

Rameez alleged the PPM had become “desperate” after realising that Gasim and former President Nasheed were the only two candidates who had any chance of winning the upcoming elections.

“I am sure Yameen and Jameel are behind this. This is part of their propaganda,” he alleged.

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Police arrest Maldivian, Russian for possession of two cannabis plants

Police have arrested two people in connection with the discovery of two cannabis plants inside an apartment on Hulhumale’.

In a statement police said the plants were confiscated during a special operation conducted by the Drug Enforcement Department (DED) on Saturday afternoon.

According to police the two plants were found inside Hulhumale’ flat number 10219.

Police stated that the two plants were kept inside a bucket on the balcony of the apartment.

A 26 year-old Maldivian man and a 31 year-old Russian woman were arrested in connection with the case, police said.

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Yameen pledges to halve president’s salary, slash wages for political appointees

Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM) presidential candidate Abdulla Yameen has pledged to halve the presidential salary and slash the wages of political appointees by 30-50 percent, should he be elected in September.

Yameen also pledged to cut the salaries of independent institutions – which include the Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM) and the Political Integrity Commission (PIC) – a step he described as pivotal for the country to avoid a sovereign default.

The MP also vowed to work towards reducing the salary and allowances of parliament members. At the same time, he pledged to increase the wages of civil servants.

The PPM presidential candidate also emphasised the need for youth employment, promising 90,000 new jobs for young people across the Maldives by the end of his five year term.

The numbers

The Maldives has one of the highest percentages of government employees to population of any country in the world, at around 11 percent.

Salaries and allowances have also rocketed up, unmatched by government revenue. Much of this growth occurred in the two years leading up to the 2008 election and the introduction of multi-party democracy.

An internal World Bank report leaked in 2010 showed that Increases to the salaries and allowances of government employees between 2006 and 2008 reached 66 percent, “by far the highest increase in compensation over a three year period to government employees of any country in the world.”

With the introduction of the new Constitution and its requirement for an assortment of independent institutions to oversee various aspects of government, the share of the wage bill to revenue soared to “an astronomical 89 percent.”

The President of the Maldives receives a base salary of MVR100,000 (US$6500) per month. During his government’s attempts to reduce civil servant spending on the urging of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), former President Mohamed Nasheed took a voluntary pay cut of 20 percent.

Despite this, the government’s attempt to impose austerity measures was blocked by the Civil Services Commission, leading to a series of scuffles between the Finance Ministry and the CSC.

The opposition at the time, now in power following Nasheed’s controversial resignation in 2012, contested Nasheed’s expenditure on 244 political appointees – a figure partly the result of the government’s early efforts to consolidate state employees under government-owned companies outside the purview of the CSC.

Figures released by the Ministry of Finance and Treasury showed that these 244 appointees were being paid MVR 99 million (US$6.4 million) a year, however Nasheed’s administration contested that this constituted just two percent of the state’s 2011 wage bill, comparing it to the 39 percent that went to the civil service, 24 percent to uniformed bodies, 17 percent to local councils, 10 percent to independent institutions, 5 percent to the judiciary, and 2 percent to parliament.

In comparison, President Waheed’s government during 2012 spent MVR 60 million (US$3.9 million) on 136 appointees, according to figures procured by Sun Online.

At the time, the monthly spend included 19 Minister-level posts at MVR 57,500 (US$3730), 42 State Ministers (MVR 40,000-45,000, US$2600-2900), 58 Deputy Ministers (MVR 35,000, US$2250), five Deputy Under-Secretaries (MVR 30,000, US$1950) and 10 advisors to ministers (MVR 25,000, US$1620).

Overall public expenditure in 2012 increased 12 percent on the previous year.  This was in large part due to measures such as the intensified recruitment and promotion of a third of the police force, and repayment of civil servant salaries cut during the Nasheed era.

The Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) noted that while total expenditure for the year was three percent lower than 2011, this was only due to the government’s failure to pay a large number of bills. Total public debt at the end of 2012 was 72 percent on GDP, the MMA stated.

Meanwhile, the government’s wage bill was in May projected to increase by 37 percent in 2013 as a result of hiring more employees, notably 864 new staff for the police and military – an increase of almost 20 percent.

In its professional opinion on the budget submitted to parliament, the Auditor General’s Office also observed that compared to 2012, the number of state employees was set to rise from 32,868 to 40,333 – resulting in MVR 1.3 billion (US$84.3 million) of additional expenditure in 2013.

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