Former vice president of the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) Umar Naseer has said that although the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) has a lot of talented members with good moral standing amongst them, the party will never be able to come to power as long as Mohamed Nasheed leads the party.
Umar Naseer, who lost PPM’s primary election for Abdullah Yameen and then defected from the party, recently decided to support Jumhooree Party for the upcoming presidential election.
Speaking at a Jumhoory Coalition press conference, Umar said that former president Mohamed Nasheed is a leader who encourages the use of drugs, that Nasheed himself is an open user of drugs, and that he is inclined to do all that is prohibited in Islam. Umar said that thus, it is a religious and national responsibility to stop the former president from coming back to power. He said that he is 100 percent sure that that the MDP will not win the presidential election this year.
“MDP can never come to power, as long as they have Mohamed Nasheed as their leader. They can never come to power, regardless of how much they try,” Umar said.
Umar said that other leaders within MDP needs to step up. He said that the party is “not a person” but a “big institution” and again stressed that they need to replace their leader to if they want to come to power.