Former President Abdulla Yameen on Wednesday night asked why the government was finding it difficult to grant his freedom and slammed the leadership of the ruling Progressive Party of Maldives-People's National Congress (PPM-PNC) coalition.
Speaking at a rally held to introduce candidates from his newly-formed People's National Front (PNF) for the parliamentary elections, Yameen said the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) would not want him jailed and raised questions about his lack of freedom.
"It's not MDP that's in power. So they won't necessarily want to keep me in jail. Or they won't want necessarily to prohibit me from talking to my voters," Yameen said, expressing his views.
Yameen said the current government came to power with the backing of his supporters and his ideology. During his election campaign, President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu had mainly proposed Yameen's policies.
"So who is it now that is finding it difficult to grant me this full freedom that I mentioned, the freedom for me and my voters to talk," he asked.
Leadership silenced with court order
Yameen was convicted of bribery and money laundering and sentenced to 11 years in prison. Despite having been awarded the PPM-PNC ticket, Yameen was barred from contesting in the presidential election due to the conviction.
That was because the Supreme Court ruled that Yameen was ineligible to become a candidate. The PPM-PNC leadership went silent after the ruling, Yameen said.
"Their [voice] was totally gone. In my view, the Supreme Court would have had the opportunity to review their decision if we had been a political party and vehemently protested against it," Yameen said in his first remarks about the judgment on live television.
Yameen said he believed the presidential election should have been boycotted as the Supreme Court would have then "realized its mistake" and reviewed the case concerning his candidacy. Yameen believes that would have been likely due to the large number of PPM members.
"The people in our party didn't want to do that work."
"Government leaders won't answer phone calls"
Leaders changing their stance raises questions about their intent, Yameen said.
"None of these people want to respond to messages or answer phone calls. They don't even the courage. So we don't have that relationship. Why did all of this change overnight?" Yameen said in his criticism of senior government officials.
The main pledge made during the presidential election was freeing former President Yameen, who was also the PPM-PNC's leader then. President Muizzu and coalition leaders said at the time that Yameen was innocent and blamed the previous government's alleged influence over the judiciary for his imprisonment.
Yameen remains a convict but the government has said that the pledge has been fulfilled. He remains confined to Male' and the calls condemning his "haram sentence" have died down.
