Maldives Speaker accuses ruling coalition's minor partner of 'monopolizing' govt

Male [Maldives], July 17 : Maldives Parliament Speaker and former president Mohamed Nasheed on Saturday rebuked the leadership of Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), stating that the ruling coalition's partner, Adhaalath Party has 'monopolized' the government.
In a statement posted on his Twitter handle, Nasheed said although the main-ruling MDP won the presidential election by a large margin, President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has allowed Adhaalath to monopolize his decisions.
He further said the majority of Maldivians are progressive and do not support the ideologies of Adhaalath Party. Nasheed also accused the MDP government of withdrawing support for its non-muslims labeling 'Hisaan bill', under the pressure of conservative religious parties.
"The government therefore rightly put forth a bill in our Parliament that criminalises such labelling. But when the conservative religious parties who are part of a political alliance with the government objected, the government withdrew support for its own bill," he said.
This comes days after Nasheed declared his decision to break political alignment with President Ibrahim Solih, indicating a period of political instability and administrative perplexity than already present. Nasheed has hinted that he may form a coalition with the main opposition, the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM).
Over its recent break-off with MDP, Nasheed said, "if the government is unable to employ the leadership required to support this bill and all it stands for, then I find it very difficult to support the government."
"We achieved political progress with the support of coalition partners, but when President Solih made clear that he will allow one rather minor coalition member, the Adhaalath party, to monopolize his every decision it also became clear that the current dynamics of this coalition violate every principle of our representative democracy," he said.