Male’, Maldives – Former President of Maldives and current Speaker of the parliament, Mohamed Nasheed has said not to arrest Former Housing Minister Dr Mohamed Muizz until he has lost in the upcoming local council elections.
Prosecutor General’s Office revealed that Dr. Muizzu is to be charged with perjury under the Article (520) section (A) and (E) of the Penal Code of Maldives and if found guilty, he could face a sentence of at least four months and 24 days.
These charges are regarding his false testimony in the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague on June 25, 2019, as a witness on behalf of Noomadi Resorts and Residences, against the Maldivian government.
Speaking at a news conference earlier today, Nasheed said that carrying out elections while opposition members are imprisoned is unacceptable and should not happen under any circumstance.
He added that even though , Dr.Muizz, opposition Progressive Party of Maldives’ (PPM) Mayoral candidate for Male’ is accused of perjury, he hopes that he will not jailed until Muizz loses the elections.
“I really want to see him lose with around 6 votes in Male'”
Mohamed Nasheed
Nasheed went on to say that even if it was regarding the MMPRC grand scandal, he wishes for Muizz to not be arrested until the local council elections end.
The local council elections were initially scheduled to be held in April. However, due to the current Covid-19 pandemic in Maldives, the elections were postponed and is now to be held on March 6th of 2021.
With the Elections Commission(EC) beginning work to hold the elections as soon as Health Protection Agency (HPA) gives their approval, which is expected to be sometime this week.
With the elections just a few months away, campaigning for the elections has become a huge concern, with opposition coalition of PPM and PNC stated that they will go to the court if they don’t get equal amount of chance to campaign for the upcoming local council elections in Maldives.
The President of the EC, Ahmed Shareef recently said that if the candidates wouldn’t get the chance to campaign due to Covid-19, they wouldn’t have announced that the elections will be held on 2021. Shareef also said that he will discuss with HPA to find ways to campaign in the atolls of Maldives during this pandemic.
