Comment: Maldives democracy must not go backward

The British tourists who come to the Maldives’ beaches are unlikely to know about the Foreign Office’s warning this week to steer clear of large political gatherings.

But the country’s two-year-old government is in crisis. The resignation en masse of President Mohamed Nasheed’s cabinet at the end of June created a constitutional crisis, leaving the Maldives without a government for two weeks.

The president then unconstitutionally reappointed his cabinet without reference to parliament. Opposition MPs were arrested and only released after a prolonged appeal to the supreme court – after which the governing party called for demonstrations in an effort to make the judges change their mind.