President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom on Tuesday declared that he had no doubt that the opposition coalition would eventually fall apart.
He made the remark at Vilufushi island, during his ongoing official trip to Thaa Atoll.
The opposition coalition comprises of Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), Jumhooree Party (JP), Adhaalath Party and the faction of ruling Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) which supports former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom. The coalition has put forward a joint presidential candidate, Ibrahim Mohamed Solih (Ibu) of MDP, and his running mate Faisal Naseem of JP, to beat President Yameen in the elections slated for September 23.
While Ibu is gunning for presidency with the backing of MDP's leader and former president Mohamed Nasheed, JP's founder Qasim Ibrahim, Adhaalath's leader Sheikh Imran Abdulla, and Gayoom, it is of note that the latter three had supported incumbent President Yameen's ascent to power by beating Nasheed in the 2013 elections.
Regarding the current MDP-led coalition of opposition parties, Yameen remarked that the public would inevitably witness the alliance falling apart.
Noting how Qasim Ibrahim and Yameen's estranged half-brother Gayoom had left the ruling coalition of Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) and Maldives Development Alliance (MDA), the president said, "These are all coalitions that existed before. All of them had fallen apart. Qasim Ibrahim could not handle even three months of being the home minister; this is the truth."
The president was referring to the regime of former President Nasheed, during which Qasim Ibrahim had served as his first Minister of Home Affairs. Qasim had eventually fallen out with the MDP government at the time.
Yameen also condemned how 12 lawmakers formerly of his ruling party defected to the opposition. In a controversial development of events, the Supreme Court had last year July ruled that floor-crossing would result in automatic disqualification from the parliament, a decision that Yameen described was necessary to ensure the rights of the people who elect MPs to represent their constituencies.
Whilst the opposition had harshly criticised the verdict, President Yameen pointed out that MDP's current manifesto seeks to legally bar floor-crossing, in addition to annulling the presidential system in favour of a parliamentary system of government.
In his criticism of the opposition, President Yameen further stated that the national debt had increased from MVR 4.3 at the end of Gayoom's presidency, to MVR 29 billion by the end of Nasheed's abridged regime. However PPM was endeavouring to bring about development to the Maldives despite the challenges, something that MDP was incapable of doing, said Yameen.
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