Civil Court ruling was not issued upon MDP, attempts to halt primary are unlawful: Hisaan Hussain

Main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP)'s legal director, Hisaan Hussain said that the order issued by the Civit Court on Wednesday evening was not directed towards MDP, calling Maldives Police Service's attempts to halt the party's primary election 'unlawful'.

In an interview to privately-run station RaajjeTV following officers of the MPS barging into the MDP premises to halt the ballots, the prominent lawyer said that the court order was issued to a "Maldives Democratic Party" and that she is not aware to which party the court order 'is exactly issued for'.

Hisaan said that since the Civil Court had not issued any orders on halting the primary elections of the “Maldivian Democratic Party”, the 'actions of officers of MPS this afternoon are illegal'.

She further said that the court order does not give the right to officers to barge into people’s homes and properties and seize their belongings.

While the court order gives Police the power to halt party primaries, it only authorizes them to halt the ballots and not to seize party belongings she said is against the court order.

Officers had barged into polling stations as MDP's primary elections were still proceeding after the Civil Court order was issued, and had confiscated vote papers and ballot boxes.

Over 200 ballot boxes were placed in the outlying islands of the Maldives as well as abroad, in the presidential primary elections of MDP, which started at 2pm on Wednesday.

The Civil Court ruling stated that allowing a convict, such as former President Mohamed Nasheed, to contest in the election is illegal and comes right after the Attorney General made the request to halt the opposition primary election.

The Attorney General made the request after the Elections Commission (EC) also requested the police service and intervene.

Nasheed, MDP's co-founder and de-facto leader, is the only one contesting in the MDP primary election. The self-exiled opposition leader who is currently in Sri Lanka, had used video conferencing and social media to meet with supporters at his campaign rallies held across the Maldives. He was sentenced to 13 years in jail in March 2015, after a trial deemed to be "politicized and unfair" by both the local and international community.