The civil court on Sunday issued a stay order on the decision to dissolve Maldives Reform Movement (MRM).
The elections commission (EC) on Wednesday removed former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom’s MRM from the list of political parties for failing to get the signatures of 3000 members as required by law.
Gayoom and his son Faris Maumoon, the president of MRM, expressed anger over the “unlawful” decision.
“By God’s will, we will work against this unlawful and corrupt decision and we will be successful,” Gayoom tweeted.
MRM claims that the party submitted 3000 membership forms within the deadline given by EC.
The party told the court that they were preparing to petition the civil court in 30 days to overturn the decision so the court issued a stay order for that period.
Although the EC has dissolved MRM and informed it not to carry out any political activities, the order states that no actions can be taken against the party for the next 30 days.
Two MRM members are ministers in the cabinet of president Ibrahim Mohamed Solih. They are Gayoom’s daughter, Yumna Maumoon as the heritage minister and Dr. Ibrahim Hassan as the higher education minister.
Solih has invited the party to support his re-election campaign for the September 9 presidential vote, but MRM is yet to respond.
MRM has been in discussions with some opposition parties and there were rumors that Faris might contest the election.
Recently, 11 senior members of MRM left the party announcing their support for Solih’s re-election campaign.
Gayoom and his parties
Gayoom, 85, is a former strongman who ruled the country for 30 long years. Following years of instability and pressure, he agreed to bring reforms. He founded the Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) when multi-party democracy was introduced into the country.
He was defeated in the country’s first competitive presidential election in 2008. Following that, DRP worked as the opposition party, but soon internal rifts led to the creation of two factions. Gayoom later decided to leave DRP and form a new party.
His second party, the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) was formed ahead of the 2013 presidential election. Gayoom’s half-brother Abdulla Yameen contested in the party’s ticket and was elected the new president.
Yameen was quick to take full control of the party, once again, leading to two factions within the then-ruling party. Gayoom was sidelined and forced to begin a new political movement against his half-brother.
His Maumoon Reform Movement campaigned for Solih in the 2018 presidential election. Following Solih’s election win, the movement was registered as a political party in November 2019.
