Former President of Maldives and current Speaker of Parliament, Mohamed Nasheed issued a statement on Thursday, after the US Capitol was stormed by Donald Trump supporters this Wednesday.
Publicised via his official Twitter handle during the early hours of the morning, the leader of incumbent ruling Maldives Democratic Party, Nasheed commented on the US situation, declaring it to be “nothing less than an attempted coup d'état”.
The appalling spectacle at the US Capitol right now, is nothing less than an attempted coup d'état. Having been through one, I know what a coup looks like. It’s not just US democracy, but democratic freedoms and norms around the world that are currently under attack.
— Mohamed Nasheed (@MohamedNasheed) January 6, 2021
With the anniversary of Maldives’ alleged 2012 coup d'état exactly one month away to-date, the country’s first democratically elected leader quipped, “Having been through one, I know what a coup looks like”.
On February 7, 2012, then-President Nasheed authorities whisked away to Maldives' military headquarters. Shortly after he abruptly resigned during a televised address broadcasted by state media. His Vice President Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan Waheed was then sworn in as President.
While Maldives Committee of National Inquiry (CoNI) report deemed that the transfer of power on February 7, 2012 was legal, it was not the sentiment shared by the opposition; they believed that Dr Waheed had doubled crossed Nasheed.
In addition to the above, Nasheed observed that the US’s current political climate was not singular and that in his opinion, similar attacks are being imposed on “democratic freedoms and norms around the world”.
On December 14, 2020, the US electoral college confirmed that Joe Biden was elected President of the United States of America. The well-known Democrat has almost 50 years of political service and previously ran for the White House in 1988 and 2008 elections.
However, it was not until January 7, after the invasion of the Capitol, that the Congress rushed and certified his presidential win. President-elect Biden and his Vice President-elect Kamala Harris are due to be sworn in at noon on January 20, 2021.
At present, US President Donald Trump has only two weeks left in office but, with little on his public schedule for weeks and multiple reports he is losing his grip on reality, lawmakers renewed talk that his cabinet should remove him as unfit for office under the 25th Amendment to the Constitution.
Sign In