Government accused of undermining all-party talks with preconditions

The government renewed invitations for all-party talks in late September shortly after the Commonwealth’s democracy watchdog placed the Maldives on its formal agenda. Both the government and opposition at the time accepted the Commonwealth’s call for “time-bound dialogue without preconditions” to resolve a protracted political crisis.

“However, a series of letters from the president’s office show deliberate efforts to complicate the process by overstepping its mandate and dictating preconditions before the talks have even convened,” the MDP said in a statement on Monday.

Last week, the government sent letters to all political parties demanding that representatives must be approved by governing councils. The president’s office also informed the MDP in a second letter yesterday that “the government will not accept a nominee if the person is currently serving a sentence.”