Nasheed rejects US compromise call
Ousted Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed yesterday rejected a US
call to compromise and dismissed proposals for a unity government to end
political unrest. Nasheed, who insists he was removed in a coup, told
supporters overnight in the capital Male that he would press for snap
elections instead of pushing for his party to consider a coalition with
his former deputy who succeeded him.
“We want an election and we will campaign for it,” Nasheed told large
crowds, who cheered and later dispersed peacefully.
Nasheed said his Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) did not accept the
new government as legitimate. He also repeated his calls for an
independent investigation into the alleged coup that toppled him and
accused the police and the military of carrying out arrests of MDP
supporters and those linked to his administration.
His remarks came hours after US assistant secretary of state for
South Asian affairs Robert Blake spoke out against snap polls and asked
both sides to make “compromises.”
The United States is strongly backing calls from the new president,
Mohamed Waheed, for a national unity government to be formed.
Legislator Eva Abdulla, from Nasheed’s MDP, said they were
maintaining their stance that there should be an investigation into what
they call a coup and there should be elections immediately. “He (Nasheed)
is sticking to his position,” Abdulla told AFP. Blake had said that it
was too early to hold an election and he wanted Maldivian institutions
such as the police, the judiciary and the elections commission
strengthened before the next vote due in November 2013. “I don’t think
anyone believes that elections can be properly held right now,” Blake
told reporters on Saturday evening at the end of a 12-hour visit for
talks with Waheed, Nasheed and several others. The new president has
also ruled out elections before his term ends in 2013.
AFP
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