President of the Maldives Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan has told the UK’s Financial Times (FT) newspaper that he would not resign as this would require him to hand power to the Speaker of Parliament, Dr Abdulla Shahid, “who got elected with just 2,000 votes”.
Dr Waheed’s own Gaumee Ithihaad Party (GIP) received 518 votes in the 2009 Parliamentary Election, and had 2625 members as of February 27.
“For me it would be easy to leave the country and go but I wouldn’t do that,” Dr Waheed told the FT. “[Voters] elected me with an expectation that if a situation like this arose, I would be there to help manage it. I feel responsible that I need to do that.”
Resigning and holding early elections would be “reckless and undemocratic”, Waheed said: “It would be irresponsible of me.”
