MALDIVES IN ACTION

Maldives opposition protest ahead of ‘coup’ report

Police have said they will not allow any unrest
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Supporters of ex-Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed have held rallies in the capital, Male, ahead of the release of a report into this year’s transfer of power.

The report is set to rule on whether Mr Nasheed was forced from power in February in a coup, as he has alleged.

Earlier, Mr Nasheed’s sole representative quit the panel, saying the results were biased and incomplete.

Security has been beefed up and police have called for calm.

Eyewitnesses said several hundred people demonstrated on Wednesday evening in support of Mr Nasheed, after the former president called on them to take to the streets.

Mr Nasheed, the country’s first democratic president, claims he was forced to quit in February under duress after soldiers and police mutinied in the capital, Male.

But his successor, Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik, who had been serving as his vice-president, insists that Mr Nasheed left of his own accord after opposition-led protests.

‘Missing evidence’
The BBC’s Charles Haviland, in neighbouring Sri Lanka, says both forecast that the report will declare there was no coup – which would satisfy President Waheed and dismay Mr Nasheed.

“If the commission says it’s not a coup, then it’ll be big shock to all Maldivians. Nobody is going to believe it,” Hamid Abdul Gafoor, a spokesman for Mr Nasheed’s Maldivian Democratic Party, told Reuters.

In dramatic resignation earlier, Ahmed “Gahaa” Saeed, Mr Nasheed’s nominee on the Commonwealth-backed inquiry, said the report was missing some key testimonies and photo, audio and video evidence.

Police have said they will not allow any unrest and have been carrying out searches on people on the streets and those arriving on boats to Male, according to local media.

The situation not just in Male but in other parts of the Maldives, too, is tense, our correspondent says.

Mr Nasheed, a reformist who spent years in jail or under house arrest, came to power in 2008 after beating long-time President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom in the country’s first ever polls.