“CMAG lacks clear mandate to place Maldives on its agenda”: government tells EU

Following former President Mohamed Nasheed’s claim he was deposed in a coup d’état, the Commonwealth suspended the Maldives from the CMAG, and said it had decided to place Maldives on its formal agenda because of “questions that remain about the precise circumstances of the change of government, as well as the fragility of the situation in the Maldives.”

However, in a statement obtained by Minivan News provided to a monthly EU parliamentary session on South Asia, Didi said the situation in the Maldives did not allow for the country to be placed on the Commonwealth’s agenda.

Didi said the enhanced mandate of the CMAG approved in Perth in October 2011 only allowed the organisation to place a country on its agenda if there was: “(1) unilateral abrogation of a democratic constitution or serious threats to constitutional rule; (2) the suspension or prevention of the lawful functioning of parliament or other key democratic institutions; (3) the postponement of national elections without constitutional or other reasonable justification; and (4) the systematic denial of political space, such as through detention of political leaders or restriction of freedom of association, assembly or expression.”