Former President Abdulla Yameen on Monday night presented a long list of investigations that he wishes the Progressive Party of Maldives-People's National Congress (PPM-PNC) government to undertake upon coming to power.
Yameen spoke at a political rally for the first time after spending several months in jail over a sentence handed by the Criminal Court on bribery and money laundering charges.
In his speech, Yameen characterized the investigations and action against those responsible as the most important work that lies ahead. Development work would be "easy" and continue naturally, he said.
As the first item on his list, Yameen included the delimitation of the maritime boundary between the Maldives and Chagos, which was considered to be part of Mauritius.
He repeated the allegation about the loss of a large portion of Maldivian territorial waters amid the dispute.
The first order of business for President-Elect Dr. Mohamed Muizzu should be launching a protest to reclaim the "lost" ocean territory and petitioning the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), Yameen said.
In its judgment, ITLOS divided the 92,563 square kilometers disputed overlapping area between the Maldives and Chagos with 47,232 kilometers to the Maldives and 45,331 kilometers to Mauritius.
Yameen urged political parties to continue their protest against the ITLOS decision.
"The first thing that needs to be done is determining the sovereign territory. What the President-Elect needs to do first is to register our objection at ITLOS. I will present this advice to the President-Elect as well," Yameen said.
The second item on the list was Yameen's allegations about the threat posed to the country's independence by the presence of Indian soldiers.
"Not a single pair of Indian boots needs to be in the Maldives," he said, concluding his remarks on the topic and moving on to the 2018 election that ended his government.
"If the infringement of the people's vote isn't investigated, what should be?"
Yameen said "how the 2018 election was stolen" should be investigated in order to assess the level of support for the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), refusing to accept the results.
If the alleged vote rigging is investigated, how many officials from the government could escape responsibility was questionable, Yameen said.
"Not to be personal at all, but what should be investigated here without investigating how the rights of institutions were infringed? It could be that [former Elections Commission President] EC Shareef was the principal actor. But it wasn't just him that was complicit. The theft of the 2018 election must be investigated. That is not being personal, that is not taking revenge," Yameen said.
As then-EC President Ahmed Shareef was not the only person suspected, Yameen said everyone involved must be placed under investigation.
"So if that case is investigated, there won't be any [politicians] here. No one among the current senior officials will be here," he said.
In addition to the maritime boundary demarcation, Indian military presence and the 2018 election, Yameen also listed several other matters that he wished to be investigated.
