Nasheed nominee to CNI accepted, reportedly withdrawn

Confusion surrounds the appointment of former President Mohamed Nasheed’s latest nominee to the Committee of National Inquiry (CNI). The government today confirmed its acceptance of Mariyam Manaal Shihab to the CNI before local media reported that the nominee had been withdrawn.

President’s Office spokesperson Abbas Adil Riza told Minivan News at around 3:30pm this afternoon that Manaal’s nomination had been deemed acceptable to the government.

“She fits the criteria set down by the government and the Commonwealth. The government welcomes the changes and the MDP’s desire to move forward,” said Abbas.

Abbas said that Manaal had been working as a legal consultant for the Ministry of Economic Development and was “well respected in her field”. She is the daughter of Mohamed Shihab, former Speaker of the Majlis and Minister of Finance under the previous government.

When asked about the nomination at around 4:30, MDP International Spokesman Hamid Abdul Ghafoor said that he had heard about the matter but believed the nomination had happened in a “very direct” manner.

Shortly after this time, however, local media reported an unnamed government official as saying that the nominee had been withdrawn. The same article quoted MDP Spokesman Imthiyaz ‘Inthi’ Fahmy as denying that any such nominee had been posited.

When Minivan News called Abbas at 6:00pm, he said he was aware of these new reports but had yet to receive confirmation of the withdrawal.

“Maybe the MDP is flip-flopping,” he said.

Minivan News witnessed video footage of Inthi being led away by police at the National Council meeting just outside the Usfasgandu area. This area was closed off before being raided by police this morning. Inthi was not answering his phone at time of press.

When Ghafoor was re-contacted, he also said he was aware of the fresh media reports. Ghafoor could not confirm what had happened but pointed out that it had never been the MDP’s policy to discuss the names of potential nominees.

“It has always been the government that releases the names of the nominees. We have never given the names of those proposed,” said Ghafoor.

False dawn

The appointment would have completed the composition of the reformed CNI, representing the culmination of months of internal and external pressure to enhance the credibility of the body assembled by President Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan to investigate the events of February 7 and 8.

The new-look CNI is scheduled to begin its work on June 1 and is expected to have completed its work by July 31.

The government has threatened to appoint a lawyer of its choosing to the commission should a suitable Nasheed nominee not have emerged by the start of proceedings.

The major impetus for these alterations came from the Commonwealth’s Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) which had set a mid-May deadline for the CNI’s satisfactory reform.

As the deadline approached, the Commonwealth’s Special Envoy to the Maldives Sir Donald McKinnon arrived in Male’, eventually reaching a deal with the government to allow Nasheed to nominate a “suitable” nominee.

These criteria, later clarified by the Commonwealth as people who have not taken a stand on the events in question and who are not expected to testify before the commission, was interpreted more onerously by the government.

The government added the conditions that the nominee must not have served in a political post in the past two years, and must be of “good behaviour and integrity”.

These conditions were labelled “subjective” by the MDP as its first 11 nominees were considered “generally unacceptable” by the government.

This had led to pessimism from within the MDP, with Ghafoor anticipating last week that the Commonwealth would again have to mediate before the issue was resolved.

A successful nomination would bring the CNI closer to being “impartial, credible and broadly acceptable”.

These were the words prematurely attributed to Don McKinnon by the Maldivian government in a statement to the international media, released on the PR Newswire service last week.

This statement brought a swift response from the Commonwealth, which labelled the statement “misleading”.

“Indeed, [Sir Donald McKinnon’s] efforts while in Maldives, and since his departure have been focused on achieving that objective, so that a truly impartial, credible and broadly acceptable Commission of National Inquiry can be put in place within the agreed time-frame,” the Commonwealth stated.

The government’s efforts to implement a commitment made to McKinnon, to strengthen the powers of the CNI and broaden its composition with an international co-chair and nominee of former President Nasheed, “are still ongoing”, the Commonwealth stated.