Former Maldivian president Mohamed Nasheed has said that for him It will be “very difficult” to support the current government after it withdrew the hate crime bill.  Speaker Nasheed and President Ibrahim Solih--both from the same ruling party--are at loggerheads for quite some time over the government’s failure to pass the hate crime bill.  

Nasheed, who is in Germany and recovering after escaping a bid on his life, said that the MDP, the ruling party, won the 2018 presidential elections by a wide margin because people voted for the party and its principles and love for freedom, despite having formed a coalition with three other parties. 

The party has long been opposing Islamic extremism and hardliners in the country.

Accusing Solih of allowing Adhaalath Party, a coalition partner in the government which holds the home portfolio, to monopolize his decisions, Nasheed said it showed that the current dynamics of this coalition violated every principle of our representative democracy.

He stressed that the vast majority of Maldivians “voted for progressive candidates”. In a veiled reference to Home Minister Imran Abdullah, the leader of the Adhalath Party, he said people “did not vote for religious extremists who would deny their liberty and remove the things they love most from society”.

On the other hand, Abdullah’s party condemned Nasheed’s attack on the government, accusing him of scoring “selfish own political goals.”

Nasheed claimed on Saturday that the government had withdrawn the support for the hate crime under pressure from the religious extremists holding power in the government, adding it would be “very difficult” to support the current government. 

Meanwhile, despite attacks by Nasheed, President Solih has maintained a stoic silence on the issue and has not reacted to his charges. Both Nasheed and Solih are childhood friends and the differences between them has been growing for months now, threatening the stability of the government. 

(SAM)