PPM and PNC to boycott 2022 presidential address

The opposition coalition, composed of PPM and PNC, has announced the decision to boycott the sitting scheduled for Thursday to reopen the Parliament – in which President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih will deliver his annual address. 

Article 84 of the Constitution states the President must deliver his annual presidential address at the inaugural sitting of the Parliament each year, in which he will brief the Parliament on the current status of Maldives, including its successes and challenges, and his plans for the future of the country. 

The opposition coalition announced in a statement on Wednesday evening that both PPM and PNC will boycott the sitting. 

The PPM-PNC coalition said it does not want to attend a sitting in which someone who was “autocratic, stranger to democratic principles, and sold the country’s independence to a neighboring country” would deliver his presidential address. 

“...We therefore announce our decision not to participate in a meeting in which someone who is so autocratic, stranger to democratic principles, and sold the country’s independence to a neighboring country, in order to protest the aforementioned issues,” said the coalition. 

The opposition coalition listed many reasons for its decision. 

The opposition accused the government of exerting influence over the judiciary to manipulate former President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom’s trials, and of rendering independent institutions powerless and committing acts of corruption ahead of elections. 

The opposition coalition said the vacuum in the Anti-Corruption Commission ahead of the elections was further evidence of the government’s autocracy and lack of adherence to democratic principles. 

The opposition coalition said that various secretive agreements made by the government with India has undermined Maldives’ independence and sovereignty, and that the decision to draft a bill to criminalize the ‘India Out’ campaign and imprison those who raise their voices for the cause showed the extent to which the government had fallen under control of India.