MDP calls for a new wave of Maldives tourism boycott

Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) has called for the boycott of Maldives tourism.

The call for a new wave of the boycott was made by the party’s international spokesperson MP Hamid Abdul Gafoor in an interview to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"It's mainly the tourism profits that go to finance the suppression of democracy in the Maldives," Hamid Abdul Ghafoor told AFP. "This is why we appeal to other countries to slap a tourism ban on the Maldives."

Hamid also said that MDP has now extended its protests to tourist resorts.

Sky News reports that dozens of Maldivian resort workers on Saturday protested against the Supreme Court's decision to delay the second round of polls scheduled for Saturday, pending the court’s case following allegations of malpractice in the first round of the presidential elections.

"The management allowed workers to freely express their feelings, but there has been no disruption to work," an official from Anantara resort told AFP by telephone, wrote Sky News.

MDP has called the international community to boycott Maldives tourism on several occasions earlier, most recently following the resignation of MDP’s current presidential candidate and former president Mohamed Nasheed under contested circumstances in early 2012. The effects of the boycott were felt across all sectors of the tourism industry, costing the government millions of dollars in promotion campaigns to overcome the damage.