Mutiny ahead of boycott call, appeal halted: Yameen

Former leader of the PPM/PNC coalition Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom on Wednesday evening, has alleged that the coalition had already mounted a mutiny ahead of his call to boycott last year's presidential election.

While speaking at Wednesday evening's PNF fally, the former Maldives President responded to President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu's special advisor Abdul Raheem Abdulla, the former close confidante of Yameen.

Last Monday, in his interview to 'Sun', Abdul Raheem claimed the PPM/PNC leadership was loyal to the cause of Yameen's release from prison, but the conflict rose when the coalition's senate rejected the former leader's request to boycott the presidential election.

"Now I keep hearing that I began to act stubborn, or was disheartened and frustrated due to the rejection to my boycott calls," Yameen responded.

"According to this narrative, the mutiny began due to this conflict."

With this, Yameen next highlighted an earlier statement by the former Police Commissioner Hussain Waheed. 

Waheed earlier said on X, that the PPM/PNC coalition top brass were already discussing to stall Yameen's High Court appeal long before Supreme Court was expected to decide about his presidential candidacy.

The former Commissioner in his earlier statement further alleged that both Abdul Raheem and the current Maldives President were co-conspirators of the mutiny, which the current Minister of Economic Development Mohamed Saeed and Minister of Local Government Adam Shareef had revealed to other members later.

"None of these members would deny this, so, the mutiny did not originate from the boycott call, but the schemings began long before, to render me ineligible and stall the appeal at the High Court," Yameen claimed.

According to Yameen, MDP is not solely responsible for his appeal's delay but the top brass of the PPM/PNC coalition are equally culpable of it.

Elections Commission (EC) disqualified Yameen during last year's presidential election owing to his criminal sentence. 

The then opposition coalition fielded Dr. Muizzu as Yameen's alternative to contend against former President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, who was seeking re-election.

Later, the seven judges of the Supreme Court unanimously held Yameen cannot contend owing to his criminal sentence, after which the former President urged the PPM/PNC coalition to boycott the election.

Despite his boycott calls, the coalition's senate approved to proceed ahead.

After Dr. Muizzu succeeded Solih as the next President, the tension between him and Yameen intensified following which the latter resigned from his position in PPM.

Immediately after exiting PPM, Yameen launched efforts to launch his new party; PNF.

Although a key pledge of President Muizzu was to release Yameen, the former leader's appeal delay and continued imprisonment has since attracted criticism from the public and opposition.

With hearings now completed, the verdict on Yameen's appeal has been scheduled for 13:15hrs on Thursday.

The former leader was sentenced to serve an 11-year jail term on December 25, 2022 after the Criminal Court found him guilty of money laundering and graft in leasing Vaavu atoll Aarah.