Defeating MDP must be the utmost priority, says Yameen

Presidential candidate for the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) Abdulla Yameen has said that the utmost priority must be to defeat the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) in the upcoming rerun of the presidential election.

Speaking at a campaign event in STELCO auditorium on Tuesday night, Yameen said that PPM had led the “jihad” when the country was facing its most dire times, and thus, the most important step to protect Islam and the country is to defeat MDP in the upcoming election.

“If we are to do this as we keep saying, for country, for religion, the first thing must be to defeat MDP. Then, we can think about who will come to power,” Yameen said.

PPM gained fair support during the September election, Yameen said, and accused MDP of having rigged the election. Nonetheless, there is a general consensus that PPM won the second most votes and succeeded to the second round of the election, he said.

Yameen said that the Supreme Court’s annulment of the September 7th election was proof that the polls were rigged, and that the international community is now convinced of the election was swindled.

Yameen said that he will accept defeat if he loses in a free, fair and transparent election on October 19th.