Opposition aligned lawmaker Abdulla Shahid has described incumbent President Abdulla Yameen as being a sailfish ‘caught in a net’.  

Speaking at a campaign event in Foakaidhoo island of Shaviyani atoll on Tuesday, the North-Henveiru constituency lawmaker said that Yameen has been acting as such.

“Yameen has been acting like a sailfish caught in a net. Sailfish nets do not have hooks, they are caught in a net that is weighed down and allowed to roam in what little space has until it tires itself out”, Shahid said.

Further keeping up with the analogy, Shahid said President Yameen has effectively isolated himself by imprisoning political rivals, building distrust towards him, and working to besiege other powers of the state.

Shahid, a former speaker of parliament himself, said that former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom had gone to ‘every length’ to have Yameen elected but would is now unwilling to negotiate his own release.

Even Chief Justice Abdulla Saeed, who has now been removed from this position, is unwilling to negotiate his own release and will ‘in no way bow down to tyranny’, Shahid said.