The government suffered political damage for attempting to obstruct the inaugural congress of the People's National Front (PNF), former President Abdulla Yameen has said.
Posing questions from the audience as usual at last night's PNF rally, Yameen said he learned a few lessons from the government's efforts to obstruct the party formation event. One lesson was that the government had seen the PNF congress as a serious challenge and scrambled to stop it, he said.
The PNF was formed on the street, a situation that it was forced into while "siblings until yesterday" were now in power, he said.
"But I will say some lessons I learned from this. They pepper-sprayed us. But it's the government that's in the ICU. Not us. The government is in the ICU, the government was rattled," Yameen said.
More than 60,000 people watched the government's actions against PNF members on the night of the congress through various media platforms, Yameen estimated. According to Yameen's estimate, only about 25 people viewed President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu's rally on the same night.
"Only 25 people, 26 people, watch these rallies held by Muizzu," he said.
Yameen characterized the police operation on the night as a big promotion for the PNF. The incident occurred due to the government's political incompetence, he said.
"They gave us quite a big platform before our party could even come into existence," Yameen said.
Yameen also criticized Muizzu's claim of being unaware of the police operation.
Yameen went on to question why President Muizzu has not submitted complaints to the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) and Parliament's Judiciary Committee over the stalled High Court appeal of Yameen's 11-year prison sentence.
On Saturday, Parliament Speaker Mohamed Aslam filed a case with the JSC to look into the delay in delivering a judgment after the High Court concluded hearings four months ago.
"But I wonder, President Muizzu had said, 'I will go take the oath of office with President Yameen.' Now he's saying it's a problem with the judiciary, that it's getting delayed and delayed," Yameen said.
Yameen said he knew the reason for the delay and posed the question about the government's failure to seek a JSC probe to both President Muizzu and his supporters.
"I want to say to the Maldivian people, the people in PPM-PNC [Progressive Party of Maldives-People's National Congress coalition], and the current President of the Maldives, as he is a President that was brought in with our ideology - okay, Aslam has [submitted a complaint] to the JSC and Majlis Judicial Committee over delays in the case in the judiciary. The people should tell me, if the Maldivian government wishes so well for me, why aren't you able to submit it to the JSC on behalf of President Muizzu?" he asked.
Aslam's complaint submitted to the JSC on Saturday stated, "As delivering a judgment is being delayed, even four months after hearings in President Yameen's appeal concluded, I propose for the JSC to look into whether this is due to judges failing to uphold ethical standards because of any kind of influence over them."
JSC Secretary General Aminath Nadha confirmed the submission of the complaint. The complaint will be tabled in the agenda for a commission meeting after a review by the investigation committee, she said.
