Former President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has warned of dark days ahead under the current regime and urged immediate action against injustice and oppression.
Addressing a throng of supporters gathered at the Carnival area in Male' on Tuesday night, Solih said the current regime was already showing signs of oppression.
"From the clouds we are seeing ahead of us, we see very dark days. Frightening days. Turbulent days full of struggles. And if we don't work on this now, we may face oppression again," he warned.
Solih, who is a veteran lawmaker, spoke about the challenges faced when the Green Constitution was drafted. He said the idea at the time was to keep all power in the hands of the people.
"We wrote our rights in the Constitution. Today, we are gathered to defend those rights. We won freedom of speech. We ensured the right to information. We wrote about the right to get a pension. We ensured free medical care from the government," he said.
"But over the past days, we see this government trying to take away all these rights from us," Solih said at the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP)'s 'Citizens in Defense of the Constitution' rally.
Ahead of Tuesday night's gathering, the MDP held a national council meeting and approved a resolution to help re-elect MPs who lose their seats for speaking on behalf of their constituents or joining the MDP.
The MDP national council also approved to carry out nationwide protests and campaigns and to launch a petition against recent constitutional amendments which were rushed through the government-controlled Parliament.
