Yamin argues Alliance not to respond to MDP claims about coup

Parties in the Alliance running the Government should refrain from responding to the claims of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) that the Government was established by a coup d’etat, says Abdullah Yamin, Parliamentary Group Leader of the Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM).

Abdullah Yamin, who is the Member of Parliament for Mulaku Constituency, spoke in these terms last night, at a special gathering of PPM, which is one of the key parties in the current Government Alliance, at Addu City.

Yamin said that MDP’s purpose was to brand the Government as a rebellion simply because they did not have their way, and that MDP’s purpose is to regain power in the Maldives. He said that MDP introduced “deceitful slogans and words during their struggle for power, as well as during their brief stay in power”.

“They have come up with a “Next Maldives”. Similarly, if we respond to their use of the word “coup”, then the word will gain more and more attention. I call upon all the parties in the governing coalition to stop using this word”, said Yamin.

Yamin also said that only MDP claimed or accepted that there was a coup d’état in the Maldives when they fell from power. He said that officials from the U.N. the USA, the EU, China, and other nations did not speak about a coup, and that they only talked about an early presidential election.

“Nobody ever questioned about the way in which there was a change of Government. Nobody, other than MDP, ever made the claim that there was a coup”, said Yamin.

Yamin said that while the international community did not see the change of government in the Maldives to be a coup, there was no need to try to prove the point to MDP. He also said that “if MDP wants to claim that they fell from power in a coup, then it is for them to go to the courts, or to the Inquiry Commission and prove their claim”.

Riyaz Rasheed, Parliamentary Group Leader of Qawmee Party, and Shifaq Mufeed, who recently left MDP to join MDP, also address hundreds of people in last night’s PPM gathering.