Maldives ex-president quits ruling party ahead of key vote

Former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed has quit the ruling party, he said late Wednesday (21 June), amid a deepening rift within the government ahead of the September presidential elections.

"After taking into account how things are happening in the country at the moment, I don't think the best course of action is for me to stay in this party," Nasheed tweeted late Wednesday, as he stepped down from the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) he founded in 2001.

"I have resigned from the party."

However, Nasheed said he would remain in his post as speaker of parliament, the number two job in the government.

The resignation from the MDP comes five months after Nasheed lost to incumbent President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih in the primary to select a candidate for presidential polls slated for 9 September.

Nasheed's supporters have formed a new party called The Democrats, and it is seen as likely he will challenge Solih at the next election as its candidate.

Solih won the 2018 presidential vote with the backing of Nasheed who was barred from that election due to a terrorism conviction, which was subsequently overturned.

Since coming to power Solih and Nasheed have drifted apart.

The crisis came to a head during the party's acrimonious primary election campaign, after which Nasheed accused Solih of rigging the vote, a charge denied by the president.

Nasheed, a world-renowned climate campaigner, survived an assassination attempt in May 2021, spending five months in Germany for treatment after a bomb blast.

There has been no claim of responsibility, but Nasheed's party has blamed religious extremists in the tiny Islamic republic of 380,000 Sunni Muslims, which practises a liberal form of the religion and is known for its upmarket tourism.

The government has cracked down on extremism and foreign preachers are banned.

Violent attacks are rare, although a dozen foreign tourists were wounded by a bomb blast in the capital Male in 2007.

The Islamic State claimed a boat arson attack in 2020, but there is little evidence the group has a presence in the archipelago of 1,192 tiny coral islands.

Nasheed caught international attention for holding a 2009 cabinet meeting underwater to highlight the threat of global warming, signing documents as officials wore scuba gear with coral reefs in the background.

He was toppled in a military-backed coup in 2012, convicted on a terrorism charge and jailed for 13 years.

He left the country on medical leave and sought refuge in Britain, returning to the Maldives after his nominee -- Solih -- won the presidency in 2018.