Nasheed will bring revolutionary change, not take selfies: Democrats

Speaker Mohamed Nasheed will use his intelligence to bring about a revolution in the Maldives and not to take selfies "using filters", his aides who are working on forming a new party said on Friday evening.

At The Democrats' first rally held at the former MDP party camp on Friday evening, aides of Nasheed, who still serve as MDP president, criticised the MDP-led government. The Democrats had changed the interior of MDP’s former camp by whitewashing the yellow walls and putting up the name board of The Democrats.

During the rally, there was resentment at MDP's move to file a no-confidence motion to remove Nasheed from the speaker's post on the grounds that he was trying to form a new party while he was MDP’s president and was running the parliament illegally. 

Maafannu North MP Imthiyaz Fahmy said Nasheed had travelled across the country to to elect the MDP majority in the parliament and had "handed over power to President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih in a tray", and all he got in return for is a “bomb”. He said that President Solih has not been able to get justice in the matter so far, and raised the question whether anyone has the right to say anything at Nasheed.

Imthiyaz described Nasheed's removal as the speaker as an act of "evil intent". Without naming any particular person, he said it was a long-standing "jealousy" and one should be ashamed of it.

Imthiyaz praised Nasheed's courage in the political arena. According to him:

Imthiyaz has often criticised the government and MDP, referring to the party as a "network of thieves".

"It's not MDP anymore, it's a network of thieves. We will break that network and save this country from injustice," he said.