Thasmeen

Jumhooree Party (JP) has criticised Ahmed Thasmeen Ali, running mate of presidential candidate President Dr Mohamed Waheed, after Thasmeen criticised JP’s manifesto.

While speaking at a press conference held this evening at JP Office, Deputy Leader of JP Dr Ibrahim Didi said that Thasmeen told an untruth and that JP’s manifesto has been published on the party’s website.

He said that the party’s manifesto is not a secret, and that its policies can be viewed in detail.

He said that Thasmeen made those remarks to achieve a political purpose, and also shared the party’s manifesto with reporters today.

“I hope honourable Thasmeen would also read this [JP’s manifesto]. I will try very hard to hand a copy of this to honourable Thasmeen Ali. It’s written in black and white, and in Dhivehi. So our work can be clearly seen in photos and in writing. It’s sad that politicians pass such untrue comments,” he said.

Similarly, Deputy Spokesperson of JP Ikram Abdul Latheef also said that Thasmeen told an untruth regarding JP’s manifesto, and that Thasmeen and President Waheed are “chasing” JP’s manifesto.

“Thasmeen told a lie. Gasim started releasing manifestos long ago. We started distributing them as leaflets to the Maldivian people. One promise we made was to provide a laptops to every student of grade 8 and above. Thasmeen must have been aware of this, they chased this promise and made a promise to provide small tablets,” he said.

Speaking at today’s press conference, council member of Adhaalath Party, Minister of Islamic Affairs Dr Mohamed Shaheem Ali Saeed said that JP’s manifesto was compiled also including Adhaalath Party’s ideas.

He said that issues related to Islam were included in the manifesto as suggested by Adhaalath Party.

When asked by Sun if Adhaalath Party has advised the government to change issues related to Islam, and if the government responds to suggestions made by Adhaalath Party, Shaheem did not reply and instead said to ask that question at a press conference held by Islamic Ministry.

Similarly, when asked what the ‘unknown goings-on’ cited by Adhaalath Party as a reason for leaving President Waheed’s coalition were, Shaheem replied by saying that this question should be posed to President of Adhaalath Party Sheikh Imran.

Speaking at the Vice Presidential Debate hosted by TVM and Maldives National University (MNU) last night, Thasmeen said that he could only find four lines about the manifesto on JP’s website.