Citizens must be cautious over elections: Yameen

Former President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom, on Tuesday, urged citizens to be cautious in the upcoming Parliamentary Elections slated for April 6.

During the campaign event highlighting Ibrahim Faisal, the candidate for Hulhumale' constituency from People's National Congress, the former president addressed the audience via a phone call, claiming that political turmoil and atrocities had increased since the landmark February 1 ruling in 2018.

"In this election, all citizens must be cautious. All candidates must be cautious. Representatives must be cautious.", said Yameen.

Moreover, he alleged that the recent presidential election was rigged and that he doubts the legitimacy of the upcoming parliament election.

He stated that opposition candidates were poised to stop these actions from repeating again.

Currently under house-arrest, Yameen highlighted the developments brought during his tenure by exemplifying the 25-storey 'Dharumavantha Hospital', adding that Maldivians should be proud of the hospital.

Furthermore, he attributed the development of reclaimed suburb Hulhumale' to his administration and claimed that former governments failed to achieve anything.

According to Yameen, in order to hold the government accountable, candidates endorsed by the former president need to be elected into the parliament.

Despite having lost the presidential bid to President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih by a wide margin of 38,000 votes, the former incumbent sought to annul the election results and filed a constitutional case at the Supreme Court accusing the Elections Commission (EC) of election fraud.

His attempt to hold a re-election was thwarted when the apex court unanimously ruled against Yameen, citing a lack of evidence to back accusations.

During the ruling, Chief Justice Dr Ahmed Abdulla highlighted that if any criminal activity were believed to have occurred during the election, it could be filed per standard procedure at the relevant institutions.

Yameen has maintained claims that the destruction of the allegedly tampered ballots was a joint felony orchestrated by then-opposition.

However, Chief of EC Ahmed Shareef responded that the ballots were destroyed a week after the period allocated to retain the papers had passed, therefore reasoning that the shredding took place as stipulated by law.