More MPs abandon Gayoom, return to Yameen’s fold
Two MPs have abandoned the Gayoom faction and returned to Yameen’s fold, just a day after condemning the president for cracking down on his opponents’ businesses.
10 Nov 2016, 9:00 AM
Hours after condemning President Abdulla Yameen’s alleged harassment of his political opponents, two ruling party lawmakers who were part of a breakaway faction loyal to his estranged half-brother have abruptly reversed their stand and renewed their support for the president.
MPs Ahmed ‘Red Wave’ Saleem and Ibrahim Shujau, the spokesman for former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom’s faction of the divided ruling party, returned to Yameen’s fold on Wednesday.
“I am with Yameen,” Saleem told reporters.
The U-turn follows a state-owned company letter threatening to seize a plot of land leased to Saleem’s grocery chain, of which Shujau is a manager, and throws a wrench into the Gayoom faction’s plans to impeach Speaker Abdulla Maseeh and remove Yameen loyalist from the judicial watchdog.
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