Chairperson of the main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), Fayyaz Ismail has claimed that after systemically weakening state institutions, President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu is currently attempting to silence the voices of the people.

Speaking at an emergency meeting of the party’s National Congress held on Friday night, Fayyaz said that the decision to hold an emergency National Congress meeting was made to discuss concerns about the obstacles that President Muizzu's administration has been introducing, to take away freedom of assembly.

He said that the Maldives Police Service (MPS) had obstructed the May Day rally organized by workers, and that the police had obstructed a peaceful protest by youth, using force to arrest two people and disperse the gathering. He added that MDP has always been a party that advocates for maintaining and upholding the freedom of assembly.

Fayyaz said that while many things are going wrong in the country today, the control of all institutions that have a say is being taken over, the voice of the People's Majlis has been silenced, and the power of the courts has been undermined, leaving no independent institutions today.

Fayyaz also said that the only voice left for the people is through MDP and some other political parties, and that President Muizzu is working to completely silence the country.

Therefore, Fayyaz said that they cannot sit and watch as things go from bad to worse.