Maldives opposition warns of ‘cowardly’ attempt to delay polls

COLOMBO: The Maldivian opposition said yesterday that government warnings of a murky plot to destabilise the honeymoon islands were a “cowardly” attempt by the ruling party to delay next month’s presidential elections.

Defence Minister Adam Shareef Umar, a loyalist to President Abdulla Yameen, said police and defence forces had been placed on alert following an unspecified threat to national security.

No further details have been provided of the alleged plot.

But the Maldives opposition seized on the remarks, suggesting the strongman president who has ruled with an iron fist since 2013 was generating fear to justify delaying September’s poll.

“President Yameen is running scared from an election he knows he can’t win,” Hamid Abdul Ghafoor, a spokesman for the Maldivian Democratic Party, said from the opposition base in Colombo.

“This is why he’s inventing cowardly excuses to cancel or delay the election.”

The archipelago nation has been on edge since Yameen – who has jailed or exiled almost all his opponents – imposed a 45- day state of emergency in February and arrested top judges accusing them of fomenting a coup against him.

The president has also not officially registered his intention to run again for office, raising further suspicions. He has until Aug 10 to file his nomination papers. — AFP