Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) parliamentary group leader and MP Moosa ‘Reeko’ Manik has called on President Mohamed Nasheed and Home Minister Hassan Afeef to arrest former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, ahead of the local council elections.
Speaking at a MDP rally held at Hinnavaru in Lhaviyani Atoll, he alleged that Gayoom had “tortured many citizens of this nation” and claimed that the former president was “causing civil unrest by spreading enmity.”
”We are here to rule the country with courage. Despite the opposition parties dismissing all the cabinet ministers, the President will rule this country by himself with the citizens,” Moosa said. ”We will not put this nation on the hands of torturers, not any more.”
Moosa said that even if only one seat of the local council elections was won by the opposition party, ”[the people] will suffer the bitterness of it.”
He also thanked the MDP parliamentary group for their efforts to “make useful laws for the country” in this difficult situation.
DRP MP Ahmed Mahlouf observed that Reeko Moosa “has always been like this – shouting about Gayoom and demanding he be charged.”
“There have been a lot of allegations of corruption made against Gayoom, but in the past two years nothing has been proven,” Mahlouf said. “What I know is that if anything happens to him, the whole country will become very chaotic. There are many people willing to die for him.”
Gayoom wrote a letter to British Prime Minister David Cameron in November alleging intimidation by the Nasheed government, expressing concern that the President would attempt to have him arrested “despite my innocence”, and despite praise from election observers at the “smooth handover of power” and assurances of safety and privileges in the Constitution for the former president.
Instead, the former President claimed Nasheed’s government had “escalated its attempts to harass me” in the run up to the local council elections, despite his retirement from politics earlier in 2010.
MDP Chairperson and MP Mariya Ali also spoke at the rally held over the weekend.
”We have traveled to many islands now, we can see the ‘other Maldives’, we can see the Maldives becoming yellow, we can see the local councils elections falling in to our hands,” said Mariya.
Mariya said that MDP was not the type of party that would point a finger at a person and say “here is the MDP presidential candidate.”
”In fact, MDP will determine who could bear the responsibility and give it to a person capable of carrying out that responsibility,” she said.
”We have reclaimed the land of Hinnavaru within nine days, only because we have elected a president that was appointed that way.”
MDP’s campaign delegation also visited Naifaru in Lhaviyani Atoll.
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