Will abide by EC if it delays election under exceptional circumstances: ruling party
This comes at a time when the opposition has been claiming that the government and the EC are trying to avoid holding the election
Senior ruling party PPM members Abdul Raheem Abdulla (r) and Nihan Hussain Manik at Sunday\'s press conference
Ruling Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) has said it wants to hold the presidential election on September 23 but that they will abide by the Elections Commission (EC) if it delays the election under exceptional circumstances.
This comes at a time when the opposition has been claiming that the government and the EC is trying to avoid holding the election.
At a press conference held by the ruling party on Sunday, party vice president Abdul Raheem Abdulla denied the claims and assured that PPM wants the election to go smoothly.
Answering a question from a RaajjeTV journalist, Abdul Raheem said that the party will abide by the Elections Commission (EC) if it decides to hold off the election under exceptional circumstances.
He also said that it is clear historically who really creates unrest and it was certain who will try to create disorder in the future.
Abdul Raheem refused to respond to a journalist who asked whether defence minister Adam Shareef was trying to create unrest by frightening the public by warning of an impending threat to national security and if such warnings should be issued in a Facebook post, as the defence minister had done on Saturday night.
While President Abdulla Yameen has been facing criticism for still not submitting his application to contest the presidential election, Abdul Raheem said that he will submit the application before the deadline, but did not specify a date.
The deadline to submit the application for candidacy to the EC is August 10, which is four days from today.
