Nasheed calls for early elections in the Maldives

Shanika Sriyananda

Maldivian ex-President Mohamed Nasheed called the present government to declare early elections to restore democracy to end the political turmoil in the Maldives.

After meeting Sri Lankan political leaders and also Colombo-based diplomats to seek assistance for his pro-democracy campaign, Nasheed said there was no need to change the country's constitution to go for an early election.

"We want to advocate an early election and we want to see a thorough investigation into the coup and the transfer of power with international participation. We also want to see democracy back on track in the Maldives. We have been speaking to the diplomatic community and the Sri Lankan government here," he said.

Explaining the why there was a need to 'rush' for an early election he said it was because the present government leads to a dictatorship. "Governments are supposed to be formed with the consent of the people.

They are supposed to formulate government policies and who should govern there. In the absence of that, what we have is a consolidation of a dictatorship. When governments are established without legitimacy, there is more room for dictatorship to take root.

Therefore, we ought to have elections as quickly as possible", he said.

Nasheed said cordial and friendly relations with the people of Sri Lanka and its government made him to visit Sri Lanka as soon as he was able to travel. He said international agencies including the Commonwealth, EU, and the Indian and US governments were also calling for early elections during 2012. "They have come to a point that elections are very important. It was shocking to see how rapidly the Indian and the US government stepped in to recognise the new regime - the coup.

I think that it took them a while to understand what was going on and then they found out it was not possible to maintain the present order. These two governments have made many re-alignments in their policies. It was disappointing at the beginning," Nasheed said.

The former Maldivian President said he was confident of coming back as any government could not remain without the consent of the people.