Abdul Raheem recruits PPM members to PNC against Muizzu, Yameen directives

Going against the wishes and instruction of President Dr Mohamed Muizzu and former President Abdulla Yameen, Abdul Raheem Abdulla, who is in-charge of running the opposition coalition, have transferred PPM members to PNC.

Muizzu, who won the presidential election on the PNC ticket with the support of Yameen, who is the PPM president, has said that the work of expanding the PNC has started. Meanwhile, Yameen met with supporters last month and asked them not to participate in the PNC's membership drive.

In a message sent to PPM-PNC social media groups late last month, Muizzu, who is also the PNC President, urged people not to expel people from the PPM but to get new members to join the PNC.

Despite the request of the two presidents, the PNC chairman Abdul Raheem has transferred some senior PPM activists at his hometown of L. Fonadhoo to PNC.

Just days after President Muizzu was sworn in, Abdul Raheem, who was appointed as his special advisor, said in a Facebook post on Tuesday that the members had been admitted to the PNC.

After handing over the forms to President Muizzu, he shared a photo of the event in the post. In the post, Abdul Raheem said:

"Tourism minister [and son of Abdul Raheem] Ibrahim Faisal and Finance Minister Mohamed Shafeeg, from Fonadhoo were present at a special ceremony held in Dhimyat this evening," Abdul Raheem's post read.

All the members of the Fonadhoo Council and the Women's Development Committee are former PPM members.

While the President had attended the event and ensorsed this transference, his message to PPM-PNC groups when he first requested not to transfer members between the coalition parties at the time read:

"I would like to ask the Senators to give their full support to the PNC to reach 10,000 members. And as I said before, I would like to ask you to be very careful not to expel any member from the PPM."

The PPM-PNC and Abdul Raheem could not be reached for comment on the matter.