President invites MDP into the Government of National Unity

President Dr. Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik has sent a letter to Ibrahim Didi, President of the Maldivian Democratic Party, inviting them into the Government of National Unity that the former is trying to establish.

In his letter, the President requested Didi to make a decision on accepting a cabinet seat in the Government and inform the Government of that decision.

An official from the President’s Office said that the President had given MDP time to make the decision until the coming Monday.

The President’s letter stated that there is only a short span of time from now until the presidential elections to be held in 2013, and that now is the time to look into the real causes of current problems and to make right on them.

“I hope that my invitation to your party to participate in the Cabinet now being formed is a good opportunity to finally put an end to age-long division in our society”, read the President’s letter.

MDP President confirmed that he had received the letter.

MDP leader Mohamed Nasheed resigned on the 7th of this month, after the Maldives Police Service and the Maldives National Defence Force joined the people’s protests against Nasheed’s continued violations of the nation’s constitution and laws, and his stated policies of favoring his own party and trying to run the country through inefficient, corrupt, and violent party activists.

When Nasheed stepped down, his deputy, the much more charismatic Waheed, was sworn in as President. Although Nasheed initially said he was resigning voluntarily for the sake of the nation, and MDP President Didi said that they would extend all cooperation with Waheed, Nasheed and his party went back on their word within 24 hours, and have carried out unprecedented acts of violence throughout the country in a bid to regain power. While MDP activists committed arson in various islands, burning court houses and police stations, MDP leadership, following Nasheed, have conducted nightly rallies, in which they condemn the current government as “a gang of rebels”.