Gayoom withdraws support for Yameen
“I have decided to withdraw my support for this government from this moment on, and I will not support this government in the future,” Gayoom said.
28 Oct 2016, 9:00 AM
Former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom publicly withdrew support for his half-brother and incumbent president, Abdulla Yameen, on Thursday following a standoff between his supporters and riot police at the ruling party headquarters.
Riot police had blocked all roads leading to the Progressive Party of the Maldives’ offices, where Gayoom had planned a rally to mark the party’s fifth anniversary, amid a bitter struggle for influence at the party’s top leadership.
Gayoom’s supporters were denied access to the office, prompting the 78-year-old, who remains the head of the PPM, to change the rally’s venue, where he publicly accused his brother of cracking down on dissent and condemned, for the first time, the jailing of opposition leaders under Yameen’s three-year rule.
“I have decided to withdraw my support for this government from this moment on, and I will not support this government in the future,” he declared to a handful of party officials and the press.
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