4-fold hike in Aasandha expense; Nasheed questions primary link

Parliament speaker Mohamed Nasheed, who unsuccessfully contested the January presidential primary of ruling MDP, questioned on Tuesday whether the four-fold increase in Aasandha health insurance expenses in January was linked to the primary election. 

Nasheed made the remarks during a debate on a resolution on mental health in parliament on Tuesday.

During the debate on the resolution, Nasheed explained the details of the state's expenditure released by the finance ministry every week, including the expenditure incurred on Aasandha in January.

Nasheed said:

"So, compared to January last year and January this year, there has been a four-fold increase in the number of patients. Then whether it was a change due to internal elections or actually four-fold increase in patients," said Nasheed, who refused to back President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih who won the primary.

According to finance ministry data, MVR 283.4 million was spent for Aasandha last month, which is 28% of the MVR 1 billion allocated for the national health insurance scheme in this year's budget.