Ex-President Yameen Terms President Muizzu’s Rise Within PPM/PNC Series of ‘Coups’

Former President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom has described the manner in which President Mohamed Muizzu claimed the presidential ticket of the former Progressive Party of Maldives and People’s National Congress (PPM/PNC) Coalition as a coup.

When PPM was considered the leading party in the coalition, the presidential ticket had initially gone to Yameen. However, the coalition went on to nominate Muizzu for the ticket, representing the then-minority party within the coalition, the PNC, as a ‘Plan C’ option should Yameen be unable to contest due to his 11-year jail sentence. The PNC ticket was contested between Muizzu and the current Minister of Cities, Local Government and Public Works, Adam Shareef Umar.

Then Yameen was barred from contesting the Presidential Elections due to his outstanding jail sentence.

“First, when I was taken to jail, there was a coup. I took stock but ignored it. Then there was another coup. Some acted on their own volition and in good faith, but were stopped,” he said.

While Yameen spoke of the two coups, he gave no further details.

Former Vice President Mohamed Jameel Ahmed, who was Yameen’s senior lawyer at the time, sees the first coup as Yameen’s first imprisonment and the various attempts by individuals within the party to secure the presidential ticket as a result.

“The President [Yameen] probably knows the best way to explain the President’s viewpoint. However, I saw that the President was referring to the first time the President went to jail. The party’s presidential ticket,” Ahmed said.

Ahmed also accused the party senators of taking bribes.

“Obviously it was carried out [by saying] ‘now we can do this’ and they took people individually and offered them money, and even paid them to stop street action and things like this,” he said.

Ahmed said the current Defence Minister Mohamed Ghassan Maumoon was to blame for what Yameen described as the first coup. At the time, Yameen’s efforts to unite the party again after his release from jail prevented the story from spreading, he said.

According to Ahmed, the second coup occurred after Yameen’s second court verdict, when he was sent to jail. At that point, Muizzu and others began working to secure their positions for a party ticket rather than supporting Yameen.

He learned that Muizzu had met with various members of the Senate and offered them positions, which were later confirmed, as he had known about them at the time, Ahmed said.