Yameen urged PPM members to avoid PNC membership boost: Jameel
For the first time since he was was allowed to go out of his house while being on house arrest, Yameen visited the PPM headquarters at around 9pm on Sunday.
PPM and PNC are two parties of the same ideology and therefore PPM members do not have to fill application forms to increase the membership of PNC, former President Abdulla Yameen told his supporters in his first meeting after being allowed to go out of his house, his lead attorney Dr Mohamed Jamee Ahmed has said.
For the first time since he was was allowed to go out of his house while being on house arrest, Yameen visited the PPM headquarters at around 9pm on Sunday. Yameen met with supporters in a meeting hall at the office.
Although Yameen's statement has not been made public, his lead attorney and the first vice president of his government Jameel posted some of his words in a Facebook post.
According to Jameel, who was appointed as Yameen's running mate in the last presidential election before his candidacy was shot down by the Supreme Court, Yameen said PPM is the strongest political party in the country. The party's aim should be to explain to the younger generation the party's policies, he said.
"No member of the party should fill out forms for another party or the PNC. They are two parties of the same ideology," Jameel quoted Yameen as saying.
"We have to work hard to win the parliamentary elections."
In September's presidential election, Dr Mohamed Muizzu was elected as president on a PNC ticket.
Muizzu has said he will work to strengthen the party. Muizzu also took over as the PNC president and began to establish the party's internal mechanisms.
After the presidential election, Muizzu was elected the party's president as well, with the then party president Abdul Raheem Abdulla assuming the party's chairpersonship.
According to the Elections Commission website, as of February 21, the PNC had 3,159 members. According to the law, a political party must have at least 3,000 members.
Yameen was sentenced to 11 years in prison and fined USD 5 million by the Criminal Court in December after he was found guilty of accepting bribes and money laundering in connection with the V. Aarah lease by MMPRC. Since then, he has been in jail till last month.
He was transferred to under house arrest on October 1 after the PPM-PNC won the presidential election.
Senior government officials confirmed on Saturday that Yameen had been allowed to go out of his house.
