Male: Maldives’ ousted President Mohammed Nasheed on Saturday asked the new regime to fulfil its promise to fix an early date for polls under an India-brokered deal, a day after a Commonwealth ministerial team arrived here to probe the circumstances of his resignation.
As his MDP party’s mass rally demanding snap elections entered the second day on Saturday, 44-year-old Nasheed, who was the first democratically-elected President of the country, said the people of the country wanted early polls.
Nasheed’s MDP had earlier said that it was grateful to India for its “timely intervention” to help resolve the political impasse here, a view shared by the new regime headed by 59-year-old Mohammed Waheed Hassan.
Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai, who was here on a two-day visit, had met all stakeholders, including Hassan and Nasheed, and helped the government to come out with a roadmap to ease the political crisis triggered by the last week resignation of Nasheed in what he claimed was a coup d’etat.
After his talks here, Mathai had announced on Thursday that consequent to his discussions all the parties had agreed on a formulation to get the country out of the crisis. Under the agreed formulation, the government of national unity would hold discussions with all relevant parties to conduct elections by an early date. It would work towards the conditions that would permit such elections to take place, including any necessary Constitutional amendments, Mathai had said.
All parties of the country are expected to meet tomorrow to discuss a date for early polls.
In Washington, the State Department welcomed efforts of “all sides” to find a peaceful way forward in Maldives and said the US was working closely with India in resolving the political impasse in the island nation. “We also welcome the ongoing dialogue among Maldivians regarding the role of a unity government in addressing these issues and possibly creating the conditions for early elections. We’re continuing to urge all parties to work together to find a way through this,” State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said. Nuland said the US has been closely coordinating with India, which has “traditionally played a strong role”. (PTI)