Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) chairman and opposition leader, Fayyaz Ismail, has accused the government of misleading the public by cutting political appointees’ salaries while burdening citizens with increased taxes.
In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Wednesday, Fayyaz criticised the government for creating nearly 3,000 political jobs in the past 11 months. He argued that the administration is forcing the public to bear the cost of these salaries through repeated tax hikes, despite President Dr Mohamed Muizzu’s campaign promise to reduce the number of political appointees to 700.
“It is shameful to talk about increasing taxes on the people unless the number of political employees is reduced to 700 as promised,” Fayyaz said.
While President Muizzu had vowed to limit the number of political employees, data released by some government ministries show the figure is far higher than 700. However, the government has not yet disclosed the total number of political appointees.
The President recently announced a 10% salary cut for political appointees and employees of government-owned companies in the upcoming 2025 budget, as part of efforts to reduce government expenditure.
