Former President Mohamed Nasheed has said that Maldivians are losing their freedom of speech and assembly and that the country is reverting to a dictatorship.

The opposition leader said this at his campaign rally in R. Dhuvaafaru on Thursday night.

President Abdulla Yameen has taken hold of all the powers of the presidential system including the power to make and enforce laws, said Nasheed.

“President Yameen took the roof off the Supreme Court and arrested two judges including the Chief Justice. President Yameen has dismantled the Maldivian legal system. The police and military have taken over the parliament. Independent institutions are no longer independent. The anti-corruption commission doesn’t work. The human rights commission doesn’t work. The commissions are under the toe of President Yameen.”

Nasheed also said that the Maldives has gotten into severe debt and islands are being sold to pay it off, which means giving away the people’s independence. He said that letting another nation have control of Maldives’ independence will also destabilize the Indian ocean. No progress can be made under the cloud of war, he added.