Dr Hassan Saeed retires from politics

Dhivehi Qaumee Party (DQP) Leader Dr Hassan Saeed, running mate of third-placed candidate Gasim Ibrahim in yesterday’s presidential election, has resigned from his party and retired from active politics.

A council member of the DQP told newspaper Haveeru today that Dr Saeed has decided to end his political career based on a lack of electoral success during the past 10 years.

Running as an independent candidate in the first multi-party democratic election in 2008 – after resigning as Attorney General under former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom citing obstruction of the reform agenda – Dr Saeed came third in the first round and pledged “unconditional” support for the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) candidate Mohamed Nasheed in the run-off against the incumbent.

Appointed Special Advisor to President Nasheed following the MDP-led coalition’s victory in October 2008, Dr Saeed resigned from the post 100 days into the new administration after a series of disagreements and letters of advice shared with the media.

Saeed became a vocal critic of the Nasheed administration together with then-DQP deputy leader Dr Mohamed Jameel Ahmed, who was sacked from Nasheed’s cabinet shortly after Saeed’s resignation.

In the run-up to a mass gathering organised by eight opposition parties and an alliance of NGOs on December 23, 2011 ostensibly to “defend Islam” from the alleged liberalisation and securalisation agenda of the MDP government, Saeed’s DQP issued a pamphlet titled “President Nasheed’s devious plot to destroy the Islamic faith of Maldivians.”

Following Nasheed’s controversial resignation in the wake of a violent police mutiny less than a month and a half later, Saeed was appointed Special Advisor to current President Dr Mohamed Waheed.

He resigned from the post citing excessive “family and foreign influence” and was shortly thereafter unveiled as Jumhooree Party leader and business tycoon Gasim Ibrahim’s running mate.

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