Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) Parliamentary Group Leader Abdullah Yameen Abdul Gayoom has said that former President Mohamed Nasheed did want to meet with him, however the meeting never took place due to lack of time.
Yameen made this statement last night at a PPM function held at Artificial Beach, at a time when word has been going around that President Nasheed had sent an SMS to Yameen indicating that he wished to meet with Yameen to hand over the government to him. Yameen confirmed last night that this is true, however they were never able to meet because neither him nor Nasheed had the time.
“President Nasheed did send me an SMS indicating he wished to meet me. I didn’t have time, he also didn’t have time,” Yameen said.
Yameen said that while Nasheed was going to hand over the government to Yameen, Nasheed still hadn’t said that his accusation that Yameen stole $800m from the state was untrue. Yameen questioned whether Nasheed was in his right mind, to want to hand over the government to a person whom he believes had been involved in such corruption.
Yameen also said that on 7 February when security forces and members of the public began protesting against Nasheed’s government, Nasheed attempted to resolve the issue. Following Nasheed’s request, PPM also held discussions with security forces in this regard.
He went on to say that no one threatened Nasheed to resign, and that he was going through one of his ‘moments’ when he resigned, as well as now when he attempts to regain power.
“He tried to negotiate, to get PPM’s approval for him to remain in power. PPM advised security forces and tried to give Nasheed a chance. I can talk about these things, because when he talked to me about these things, he was going through one of those ‘moments’,” Yameen said.
He said that following his resignation, Nasheed caused much damage to state and people’s property; and him acting like he has the citizens’ and state’s interest at heart after all that, shows that his actions are not sincere. Also, Nasheed claims that MDP is the most democratic party in the Maldives – but the MDP’s President and Vice President who were elected by the votes of thousands of its members had been removed by about sixty members of its National Congress. This raises questions about how democratic the party really is.
Recently ousted Vice President of MDP Alhan Fahmy has said that Nasheed, soon after his resignation, shared with MDP Parliamentary Group Members that he was working on handing over the government to Yameen.