Between the lines on Chaandhanee Magu – Maldives protests continue into seventh day

Chaandhanee Magu is normally one of the busiest streets of Male’, the tourism hub of one of the world’s smallest and most congested capital cities.

Yet at 11:30pm on the night of Saturday July 14, an eerie silence fell on the street, save for the distant, tinny, looped sounds of the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party’s (MDP) protest anthem “Chis Chis Kolliyas”, and the synchronised thumping of police shields hitting tarmac.

The protests, or “MDP mayhem” as they have been reported in some local media outlets, reflect seven consecutive days of anti-government demonstrations by opposition party supporters.

Amidst widespread allegations in both local and international media of police brutality, attacks by protesters on police and reporters, and numerous arrests – as midnight approached yesterday, the demonstrations – much like the country’s wider political landscape – were at a stand-off.