Nasheed: Things MDP voted to change in 2018 is now re-emerging

Maldivian Democratic Party’s (MDP) leader Mohamed Nasheed’s campaign team, in a statement on Friday, remarked that many of the party’s members were concerned over the re-emergence of many things which MDP members and its supporters had voted to change in 2018.

The statement by Nasheed’s campaign team calling on to stop threatening employees claimed to have received complaints from supporters of Nasheed working at different government offices being transferred to islands other than their resident island for their jobs.

It was claimed in the statement that this was being done to deprive them of having the opportunity to cast their vote on voting day, and to refrain them from campaigning for Nasheed in their islands.

Noted in the statement is also receiving complaints of the government threatening non-supporters of opponent candidate President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih being threatened in different ways.

“Have received complaints some ministers threatening employees of ministries saying they will not be able to keep their jobs if they did not support the opponent candidate,” the statement read.

The statement also alleged that employees in state-owned companies were being instructed by their management to attend President Solih’s campaign events. On this note, the campaign team said they had received complaints from such employees, over threats to take action against them for failure to attend the campaign events.

It was further alleged that the opponent candidate was misusing government offices and authorities for campaign activities, also accusing heads of government offices and authorities of abusing their power for the same purpose.

Nasheed’s campaign team expressed concern over the re-emergence of such acts, they described as unprogressive. They detailed the existence of such acts during former President Maumoon Abdul Gayyoom’s administration, which MDP had rid of after the party was elected in 2008. The statement read that such actions remerged yet again, during former President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayyoom’s administration.

Citing these as undisputed facts by the members of the party – Nasheed’s campaign team emphasized that MDP was a political party that respected the fundamentals of democracy which worked to uphold human integrity. Therefore, they called on the government and state-owned companies to refrain from threatening employees.