The police on Friday evening, closed the deposed Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) leader Maumoon Abdul Gayoom’s party office, removed the party flag and the party name board outside the office.
The police entered the former party leader’s office located at Themaa house in Henveiru ward at around 6pm on Friday.
The police also took down a sign on the door of the office that said “The Office of PPM President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.”
While the police disassembled everything PPM-affiliated in the office, many of Gayoom’s loyal supporters, including top officials that supported him, gathered near the office and expressed their discontent.
Former president, and the founder of PPM was stripped of the party’s membership on Tuesday following an impromptu party council meeting that was held on Sunday to decide whether Gayoom should be removed from the party. In the meeting on Sunday, 26 of the council members had decided to submit the motion to ax Gayoom from the party to its disciplinary committee, who on Tuesday decided to put the motion in action.
Gayoom has been accused of sympathising with the opposition and PPM’s council has said that his ideology no longer aligned with PPM’s. They also claimed that it was unacceptable for him to remain as a party member while being actively involved with the opposition.
The decision to oust Gayoom from his party came hours after the opposition, led by Gayoom’s lawmaker son Faris Maumoon failed to oust the parliament speaker Abdulla Maseeh.
Gayoom lost a bitter power struggle for PPM’s control with the party’s incumbent leader, president Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom after the civil court handed over party reins to the younger Gayoom.
The rift between the two brothers has split the party in two, which ultimately ended with the elder Gayoom publicly withdrawing his support for his brother.
After the censure motion against the parliament speaker, the elder Gayoom’s faction has been incredibly public with their new alignments, having signed an agreement with main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party’s (MDP) leader Mohamed Nasheed, Jumhoory Party’s leader Gasim Ibrahim and Adhaalath Party’s leader Imran Abdullah to “steer the country onto the democratic path”, as Nasheed had claimed.
The new opposition loyalties appear to be strong as Nasheed had even condemned the police’s raid on the former president’s office via Twitter.