Muizzu: Lost votes due to “family reasons”

The votes which the government lost to the opposition during the Local Council Election on May 6 was due to “family reasons” and not due to lack of support for the government, says Minister of Housing and Infrastructure Dr. Mohamed Muizzu.

Muizzu made the comment during the function held at the government aligned-Maldives Development Alliance (MDA)’s bastion on Wednesday night to launch a series of bastion gatherings which will be held by ruling Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM).

During his speech at the function, Muizzu said islands which voted for other parties had huge support for President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom and his government.

“I know that islands in the atolls where the vote went like that has huge support for President Yameen. The outcome went the other way in islands which support the government for family reasons. This is the truth,” said Muizzu.

Minister of Fisheries and Agriculture, Dr. Mohamed Shainee also spoke during the function.

In his speech, Shainee said that neither the former Maldivian presidents Maumoon Abdul Gayoom nor Mohamed Nasheed, nor Jumhoory Party’s Leader Qasim Ibrahim were eligible for the upcoming Presidential Election.

He said the only candidate the opposition had was Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP)’s parliamentary group leader MP Ibrahim Ali Solih (Ibu), and that he was already a “failure”.

“The top politician among them is Ibu. Ibu has lost his constituents. The other one isn’t eligible,” said Shainee.

Shainee said the opposition suffered a huge defeat.

The function was attended by parliamentarians, senior politicians from PPM and MDA, as well as a large number of Cabinet ministers.

In all their speeches they reiterated that President Yameen had the support of the people, and expressed confidence President Yameen will win the Presidential Election in 2018.