MDP reacts angrily to Yameen calling Nasheed ‘most autocratic leader in recent history’

In a speech at the closing ceremony of a symposium held to train “campaign leaders” on Saturday night, Yameen said Nasheed had ordered the arrest of opposition politicians without court orders, undermined democracy and rule of law, and used the military to unlawfully detain a judge.

The “troubled Maldivian psyche” during the past ten years was like a “piece of driftwood” at the mercy of the waves of the Indian Ocean, Yameen said, whilst the state was “rudderless” and the country’s sovereignty was severely compromised with foreign powers meddling in internal affairs.

The economy was “irreparably damaged” and the social fabric was in tatters, he added.