Yameen accepts that there will be those even within PPM/PNC who aspire to become President, or to go forward in politics. But, he said, the issue is that they attempted to do so while leaving him in a prison cell.
Former President Abdulla Yameen stated on Sunday night that his intentions behind proposing a boycott of the presidential elections to the leadership of Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) and People's National Congress (PNC) was to initiate a review at the Supreme Court of the Court's ruling to revoke his candidacy.
Speaking at a rally held by the People's National Front (PNF) last night, Yameen responded to the allegations made against him that he had tried to discard PPM/PNC upon being unable to run for the presidency himself.
Yameen said that he had already indicated a candidate from PNC before the Supreme Court had made a ruling regarding his own eligibility as a presidential candidate, and that as this is so, the allegations that he had tried to dismiss the party holds no water.
PPM had earlier decided that its presidential candidate was Yameen.
"I am a politician, I am a person who always considers what lies ahead. My thinking was that by the time Supreme Court decided on my case, we may not have sufficient time left to hold a primary between our two parties and choose a person," Yameen explained.
Yameen further said that the reason why the second candidate had been selected from PNC and not PPM is because if there were another alternative candidate from PPM, then the Supreme Court may find it even easier to end his case.
"Then, without debate, I am no longer the presidential candidate. So I sent them a note saying this might happen, that we might not even get a single day. That due to this, we must stay prepared in case such a situation arises. So I asked them to tell PNC to let a leader who wishes to change from PPM join PNC, and then to have an internal election and opt for a PNC candidate," Yameen shared his account of events.
With the receipt of Yameen's note, PNC Senate organized the primaries as instructed, ultimately won by current President Dr Mohamed Muizzu who had joined PNC then after resigning from his post as Deputy President of PPM.
"I arranged things this perfectly. So what are they saying now about me trying to discard the party? Why are they talking about a boycott now?" Yameen said.
However, President Dr Muizzu had made the final decision to run in the election, and so joined PNC, after Yameen had already called for a boycott of the entire election. The PPM/PNC Senate had made the decision to continue participating in the election, even if against Yameen's explicit wishes.
Yameen's endorsement of President Dr Muizzu was finally announced while President Dr Muizzu and a few of his team members were at Dharubaaruge to submit his candidacy form to Elections Commission.
At last night's rally, for the first time, Yameen revealed where he had gotten the initial idea to propose to boycott the election.
Yameen said that it was the PPM leadership themselves who had always insisted that they would boycott any election that he could not participate in. He reminded that the leadership had even made these claims openly during protests, demanding that he be allowed to contest, declaring that they would shut down any elections attempted to be held without letting him contest in it.
"As I see it, and as I believe, even today, the Supreme Court's decision to not accept my candidacy was a political decision," Yameen alleged.
"So if the leadership had had the courage to boycott as they so boldly claimed they would to the public, or if they had strengthened street demonstrations to the level of a boycott, then we could have taken the matter to the point of a review [at the Supreme Court]," Yameen asserted.
Yameen also accused PPM/PNC leadership of only protesting 'for show' when he had been in prison.
"These people lack courage. I saw, when I was in prison, how these protests were ongoing. There was no zest. There are leaders who have never joined those protests. And if one joins one night, the next night, the other doesn't show up. Sometimes people are brought to the protest by some leader doing something for them and conditioning them to attend the protests," he criticized his previous party strongly.
"So PPM/PNC did not exert sufficient efforts into these protests."
Yameen accepts that there will be those even within PPM/PNC who aspire to become President, or to go forward in politics. But, he said, the issue is that they attempted to do so while leaving him in a prison cell.
"Instead of that, they could have freed me and talked to me, and through a competitive primary, they can also get elected."
Yameen stated that not a single person within the PPM/PNC leadership wished to see him free. He said that had they wished him free, the protests would not have proceeded in such a dull manner.
Yameen said that he is aware of those in the leadership, aware of everything they had done, and said he would disclose these completely once he is freed from the sentence he is currently serving.
"Respond to what I say with facts. Don't speak in the sense of saying I no longer belong in PPM, so I won't be aware of what goes on in PPM. I know the personalities of each of you, and I know everything you have done. Once this tape is removed from my mouth, I will be able to speak freely about all of that," he said.
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