By IANS
Colombo : The National Unity Alliance (NUA) of five Maldivian opposition parties Tuesday sought a transitional government ahead of the promised “free and fair elections” in the Indian Ocean atoll nation in 2008.
There was no possibility of free and fair elections if the government continued to be headed by President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom and in the absence of a transitional or caretaker government, opposition leaders told newspersons and diplomats here.
Explaining the formation of NUA, Ahmed Shaheed, who heads the New Maldives Movement (NMM), said the opposition had to unite to “ensure a smooth transition to democracy and to ensure free and fair elections”.
This would be a major step forward for the Maldives because no election so far had been free and fair, the speakers said.
The Maldives is a collection of over 200 tiny islands in the Indian Ocean and survives entirely on tourism.
Gayoom had announced a reform agenda in June 2004 and backed it up with a roadmap in March 2006, which included free and fair elections in the third quarter of 2008.
The Peoples’ Majlis was tasked to draft a new constitution.
But on Monday, when there were only three chapters left to be completed, Gayoom prorogued the Majlis for a month, leaving the opposition to wonder if he was serious about pursuing the process, Shaheed said.
Gayoom had apparently felt threatened because the chapters dealing with the president’s executive powers were not to his liking.
The NMM leader wanted the international community to put pressure on Gayoom to deliver on his promises, especially the setting up of a transitional government to conduct the first elections under a new constitution.
The European Union (EU) had called for fair elections in September this year. Other governments also should put their shoulders to the wheel, Shaheed pleaded.
Mohamed Munavvar of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) said that if free and fair elections were not held under a neutral regime, the Maldives would be in for a “serious crisis in which the people might suffer”.
“The country is already in a crisis,” he asserted.
The young, including children in the age group 7 to 14 years, were into drugs; the crime rate had been galloping and prisons were overflowing, pointed out the leaders of the Adalat (Justice) Party and Islamic Democratic Party (IDP).
“If Gayoom continues for another 10 years, the Maldives would be a failed state,” warned Umar Naseer, president of IDP.
“Gayoom has been president for six terms and is aiming at a seventh term. But 98 percent of the people do not want him,” Naseer said.
Detailing the kind of transitional government the opposition wanted, Munavvar said the present Majlis could continue so long as the nominees of Gayoom were not members.
The opposition leaders, including the MDP, the most popular of them, unanimously said that they would put up joint candidates in the coming elections.
“The idea is to defeat Gayoom and set the country right. The country cannot be set right by one party or one individual,” Umar Naseer said.