Maldives: Abdullah Yameen tries to stay in power, discredits poll result

NEW DELHI: With over a month and a half to go before he demits office, outgoing Maldives’ President, Abdulla Yameen, is trying every trick in the book to discredit the recent elections and is trying to stay in power.

On Wednesday, even as former president Mohamed Nasheed tweeted that he would land in Male on November 1, regardless of the judicial strictures against him, Yameen’s party, PPM, passed a resolution in a small group that they would not accept Ibrahim Solih as the new president of Maldives.

Reports are now surfacing that Yameen was given a large sum of money just before the elections. A report by Al Jazeera quotes confidential documents from Maldives’ Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) to say “Yameen received 22.5 million Maldivian rufiyaa ($1.5 million) in hard currency days in advance of a contentious presidential election.” Maldives’ FIU functions under the central bank. The report quoted the FIU document as saying “president received the money in two instalments to a private bank account at the Maldives Islamic Bank.” The information was apparently passed on to the chief of police.

"When the bank asked about the source of the money and its use, the bank was told the money was donated by private companies and various others to be used in the 2018 presidential election," it said, without specifying who spoke on behalf of the president.” — media reports said. If this is proved, it's not only against Maldives’ laws, it could boomerang against Yameen with a new government a month away. Corruption allegations had dogged Yameen for some time.

According to local reports, the PPM resolution against Solih was proposed by Ibrahim Muaz Ali, Yameen’s spokesperson, and passed quickly on Tuesday night. Raajje TV, a Maldives news outlet said when asked why it was passed by so few people, Muaz told RaajjeMV that they were the only people who were willing to show their faces to the media to speak out for their rights.

This comes a day after the PPM issued a statement protesting against “spike in threats, assaults and bodily harm as well as intimidation against the party’s nationwide base” after the elections. “In the days following the presidential elections, PPM, led by President Abdulla Yameen has been working on a smooth transition of government responsibilities to the winning opposition candidate, as well as the party’s immediate assumption of the important role and responsibility of the country’s only opposition party.” This statement, just 24 hours ago, would indicate that PPM had accepted the results. Yet, a day later, the party has rejected the results.

But its clear Yameen will use the next few weeks to muddy the post-election waters — this could include violent clashes, which might give him the opportunity to reimpose an emergency in the Maldives. Warning about this, former MDP leader, Abdulla Shahid tweeted on Monday, “Eight days after conceding defeat in the presidential election and several days after Elections Commission’s announcement of final results President Yaameen contests the results and calls on his supporters to protest nationwide.”

Yameen was, reportedly shocked by the election results. At the last minute, he had despatched the police to raid the election offices of the opposition candidate Solih. That seemed to have turned more people against him. In addition, Yameen’s government had imported tablet computers from China, supposedly to collate the election results. This was a point of concern by the opposition, which suspected Yameen might use them to rig the elections. Unfortunately, media sources in Male said these tablets failed to work. Whatever it is, Yameen believes he can pull the situation back, perhaps get support from China.

However, Solih’s victory has been welcomed by India, US, UK and other global powers. That makes it difficult for Yameen to overtly sabotage the mandate. But popular violence remains an option say sources. The key then will be whether India will act to protect the mandate in the Maldives.