Nasheed to Addu: Vote for 'Addu son' regardless of colour

The Democrats' founder and parliament speaker Mohamed Nasheed on Wednesday urged the people of Addu to vote for an Addu native regardless of political view, in Saturday's presidential election.

During Democrats' candidate Ilyas Labeeb's presidential campaign tour in his native Addu, Nasheed said at a rally held at Hithadhoo flat area that it would be very bad if the people of Addu voted based on a certain colour. The people of Addu should vote for a person who belongs to Addu, he said. 

Nasheed said that the people of Addu have been waiting for a long time for a person from Addu to come to power. Noting that he had no doubt that it would be an honour for the people of the south, Nasheed said he was very pleased that he had been able to contribute “even if the least bit” to Ilyas’ campaign in this presidential election.

“It will always be a pleasure for me, a satisfaction for me,” Nasheed said.

"I have a lot of confidence in the presidential candidate, Hon. Ilyas Labeeb. I have extreme confidence. I am not a native of anywhere. The truth is that I am a man of the world”.

Ilyas "being a sailor and a captain", he said, was sure to sail to a fertile shore.

"If the people of Addu start looking at colour today, it is very sad. Is it yellow, blue, pink or green? I think, today, all of you should look at voting for your own candidate," he said.

Nasheed said there was a clear reason to vote for Ilyas in the presidential election on Saturday. The reason is that Ilyas belongs to Addu.

Speaking at the rally, Nasheed noted that he was disappointed to hear about the sale of votes when he arrived in Addu on Wednesday with Ilyas.

"When I came to Addu today, I am extremely saddened to hear this talk of selling votes. I am very ashamed. The truth is, its just the snake biting its own tail," he said.

“We gave them the ballot paper. Under manacles we struggled and yet delivered the ballot paper to our children and today they are selling it. ‘What I put in this paper will be decided for personal prosperity, temporary gain, material needs.’ If anyone says so, it is a huge humiliation for this country, a huge loss.”

However, Nasheed then said that he was sure that the vote would not be sold for money and that the people would vote according to their conscience.

Noting that political parties and candidates spend a lot of money on elections, Nasheed said the history of Maldives shows that the results they want have never been achieved through bribery.

"I haven't seen it work in my life. Money does get distributed, but the people of Maldives have never brought about the results as desired by those distributing the money. They promise jobs and do give civil service jobs. Give soft loans too. They promise away the sun, moon and stars sometimes too," Nasheed said.

One of the happiest things today, Nasheed said, is that there is little influence on the vote. He said that no matter how big a political party a political leader belongs to or a businessman belongs to, money cannot lure away votes.

"Money can be taken. It will be too. However, we have never seen votes turned around lately. That is a good indication of the success of our work," Nasheed said.