Male’, Maldives – Minister of Economic Development, Uz. Fayyaz Ismail has said that he will not resign from his post and that he would act according to the presidents wishes after Nasheed sends in a letter to stating that he wishes Minister Fayyaz to step down.
Minister Fayyaz said this while speaking to local medias after the president of Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) and Speaker of the Maldivian Parliament, Former President Mohamed Nasheed sent a letter today to the chairman of the party Hassan Latheef requesting Fayyaz to step down from his ministerial position. Minister Fayyaz who is in the cabinet on an MDP slot said that he will continue to fulfill his duty as instructed by the president and that if the president wishes him to resign, then he would.
Nasheed mentioned that he thinks it’s in the best interest of the party that Minister Fayyaz steps down and prevents any damage to the party if he remains in the post. He also stated that he does not have any personal issue with Minister Fayyaz and any other ministers of this government nor anyone from the party. He also added that MDP is always known as a clean party in the eyes of the public and that one of the best traits of the party is that it’s clean from corruption and that people who have filled positions of the party rarely get accused or charged with corruption.
“It is not a political to probe in to the current Economic Minister to see if he has been involved in any type of corruption. The party has vested me with political work. If I take this in a political point of view, Minister Fayyaz is a responsibility of this party. Hence, I request the minister to step down on his own” Nasheed wrote in the letter he sent.
The letter comes after Nasheed’s work to take a no-confidence vote of the minister in the parliament. While Nasheed is in the helm of this vote, he has got 33 signatures as per internal sources from the party. As per the constitution, only 10 signatures are required for the no-confidence motion to be sent to the parliament and 44 votes is required to pass the motion. But Nasheed is trying to get guaranteed 44 votes before it’s sent to the parliament which he hasn’t been able to do so yet.
The attempt to take the no-confidence vote which started in early August has caused disruptions in the parliamentary group and as well as other parts of MDP and President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has publicly taken Minister Fayyaz’s side on it stating that he has full confidence in Minister Fayyaz.
Replying to these remarks by Speaker Nasheed, Minister Fayyaz has said that he is giving 100 percent assurance that he has not done any act of corruption and that there are systems in place which are to investigate such accusations and that he won’t interfere in any manner with such investigations.
Speaking to a local media, Minister Fayyaz said that the no-confidence vote is all politics and that’s how political things go about. He repeatedly assured that there is no corruption behind this vote and that there is no actual reason for a no-confidence vote and that these two things cannot be related to one another.
