PPM: Maumoon will not do anything unconstitutional

Ruling political party, Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) has released a press statement in which it provided assurances that the PPM leader and former Maldivian President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom would not partake in anything unconstitutional.

PPM released the statement on Tuesday night after former Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed’s interview to Indian Express, in which he proposed an interim ‘unity’ government in Maldives comprising of the opposition and dissidents from PPM led by Maumoon to replace current President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom’s administration before the elections in 2018.

Nasheed said that the opposition had always understood democracy to be the best path for the development and prosperity of the country.

“We’ve always advocated that, and when we see Gayoom on the same page as us, it would be very foolhardy of us to turn around and go,” said Nasheed in the interview with Indian Express.

Though political adversaries, Nasheed is now counting on the rift between Maumoon and his half-brother Yameen, developed noticeably when Maumoon started expressing concern over some of the bills being passed by the government through the People’s Majlis.

Yameen was seen to encourage PPM lawmakers to vote for the bills while Maumoon asked them to vote against them, creating a rift within the party.

Some such bills include the controversial bill of defamation and freedom of speech and the bill which provides the authority for government to lease land, lagoons and islands for tourism without an open bidding process – both of which are now laws.

Maumoon’s daughter Dhunya Maumoon, who had been the Minister of Foreign Affairs from day one of Yameen’s administration resigned after the falling-out, citing a difference of opinion with the government’s standing policy on enforcement of capital punishment.