Nasheed

President Dr. Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik has said that former President Mohamed Nasheed had to resign on the 7th February this year when “his plans backfired”. The President said that Nasheed had a plan to “destroy the Maldivian judiciary, abolish the lower courts, and arrest some 50 individuals”, when 7th February occurred.

President’s outspoken statements came in a speech given today at H.Dh. Kulhuduffushi, which has recently been identified as one of the strongholds of Nasheed’s Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP).

The President said that if God did not bless the nation with the incidents of 7th February, the Judiciary of this nation would have expired.

“By then, he (Nasheed) had decided to destroy the Judiciary. He had decided to abolish the lower courts. By then, he had proposed reducing the number of judges in higher courts. When the sun rose for 7th February, Nasheed had already prepared a list of 60 people to be arrested, and the list had already been sent to the Police”, said the President.

President said that Nasheed tried to “send MDP thugs” against people who tried for the best interests of this nation, and Islam as well.

“When they (MDP thugs) came out to attack the people, the police tried to control the situation and establish peace. However, Nasheed’s Administration ordered the police to let fighting and chaos and bloodshed to happen, and to leave the people to engage in violence. He then tried to use the armed forces to carry out his wishes. However, his plans did not work, but ultimately backfired”, said the President.

“When this point was reached, Nasheed did not know what to do. He realized that the people were not with him; he realized that the armed forces and police forces did not have any members who would enforce his will, and then he resigned on his own accord. When he did this and went home, he did not think about the large number of companies he had formed just to give his close associates high-salaried jobs; he did not think about the large number of uninhabited islands (unlawfully) contracted to his close friends and supporters (for million-Rufiyaa business ventures); he did not think about the fact that his resignation would mean the end to all this. He realized that 24 hours after his resignation, and said that “I have lost everything, I shouldn’t let this be”, the President added.

President Waheed said that after Nasheed’s resignation, his close associates and supporters flocked around him, asking about their “uninhabited islands, company-board-jobs, etc.”, and that in order to answer them, Nasheed came up with the story of a coup d’état.

“He then spread this claim around the world. He called tourists around the world to boycott this country. He said that this country had a military rule. Such a huge liar, who has not a shred of love or sympathy towards this nation is now trying to force the nation into conducting early Presidential elections, and saying that he want to come back to power. How can we conduct an early Presidential election? Our Constitution does not allow that. I have given a date for an early election—the early elections would be in July 2013, and no elections would be held before that”, said President Waheed.