Male, October 27 (NIA): The Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) on Thursday welcomed the announcement by eight ruling party Members of Parliament that they will work for political reforms and not be bound by the whip of President Abdulla Yameen.
Reacting to this, former President Mohamed Nasheed said: “In the light of the immense difficulties that the people of the Maldives are facing, it is encouraging that eight government party MPs have pledged to work with the opposition. We ask other government MPs to do the same, and to work towards reform. This is now leading to President Yameen’s losing his majority in the Parliament. With this, President Yameen has lost any remaining legitimacy he may have had.”
A statement issued by the MDP’s international spokesman, Hamid Abdul Ghafoor, said that the MPs had announced that they will no longer abide by the President’s unilateral decisions that have brought irreparable damage to the country.
The MPs formally announced that they would no longer abide the Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM) Parliamentary Groups’ whip as set by President Yameen.
The Government MPs, seen as former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom’s faction of the ruling party, PPM, said henceforth they will put national interest ahead of President Yameen’s whims, and also pledged to rectify previous wrongs the Parliament had committed.
Giving a list of the misdeeds of the Yameen regime, the members said that there is lack of transparency, endemic corruption; lack of any financial or economic development in the three years of President Yameen’s rule; the unchecked rise in the budgetary deficit; the increasing marginalization of the Maldives in the international community due to Yameen’s improvident foreign policy; selling of land to foreigners without public consultation; and lack of security for Members of Parliament.
The MPs urged the Maldivian security forces to refrain from any wrongdoing against the people, and called on the Independent Commissions of the Maldives to conduct their mandate in an independent and fair manner, without giving into to intimidation or bribery.
