Gasim also vows to look for oil if he comes to power

Presidential candidate of Jumhooree Party (JP) Gasim Ibrahim has said that the first thing he would do if he became president is to look for oil in the Maldives.

In response to a question posed by Sun at a press conference held after his visit to France, Gasim said today that it should be possible to find oil in the Maldives and that people should not be denied the benefits of such a blessing.

“People shouldn’t deny themselves of a blessing from God. Moreover, the technology exists to extract oil safely, without it affecting tourism. I believe that’s something that should be checked and done; that would be the first thing I’d do if I become president,” he said.

Gasim, who is also the chairman of Villa, said that the claims that extracting oil would damage tourism are unsubstantiated and “make no sense”. He said that modern technology and means exist for extracting oil.

“There are ways to do everything. We have to find the technology and do it that way. The technology used for finding oil today is not the same as the technology used 70 or 100 years ago. So those claims are baseless and make no sense,” he said.

Gasim received the fourth most number of votes in the first round of the presidential elections of 2008. He said that finding oil was included in his manifesto even back then, and that he was the pioneer who introduced the idea to the government.

“Last year [2008], also we had mentioned working to find oil. I was the one who introduced the idea to the government. We talked about it during the 2008 campaign,” he said.

Progressive Party of Maldives’ (PPM) presidential primary election candidate Abdullah Yameen has also said that he would make efforts to find oil in the Maldives if he became president. His primary election rival Umar Naseer has responded by saying that it would damage the Maldivian economy.