Participants of the all-party-talks, initiated by the government, have agreed on an arrangement of the topics for discussion at today’s meeting.
The nine all-party-talks meetings held so far have not been too successful – the only issue the parties could agree on earlier was the topics to be discussed.
Moderator of all-party-talks Ahmed Mujtaba said today that out of the six items on the agenda, the first topic agreed by all parties is ways to resolve the current unrest in the country. The last topic to be discussed is the issue of a date for an early election.
Other topics on the list are the budget situation, revising the posts of independent institutions, discussing the revisions to be made to laws and regulations, and discussing new laws and regulations.
Mujtaba said that it was also agreed to hold the next three meetings on three consecutive days, and also to keep the discussions confidential. The next meeting will be held during the weekend.
“My hope is that the next meeting can be held in the next weekend, or the weekend after that. Today’s meeting was very positive; a problem which could not be resolved all this time was resolved in one hour,” Mujtaba said.
The most recent meeting was brought to an end when the parties questioned the legal capacity of the members representing Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP). Today’s meeting was held following Elections Commission’s decision that the removal of MDP President and Vice President was valid.
MDP’s representative Henveiru Dhekunu MP Hamid Abdul Gafoor told the media after today’s meeting that MDP decided to agree to arrange the agenda as per the wishes of other parties, and to leave the issue of an early election at the bottom of the list.
“I am very happy today. We said today that the agenda can be arranged as suggested by the majority. We are ready for discussions. I think today we came out of the political deadlock,” Hamid said.
Earlier meetings of all-party-talks heated up and had to be ended because MDP wanted to include the issue of an early election on the agenda, but other parties wanted to discuss other matters first.