Sudden investigation against Joint Opposition's presidential candidate is disturbing: Rohde

While the police on Tuesday launched an investigation on Joint Opposition’s presidential candidate Ibrahim Mohamed Solih over ‘slander’ allegations, German ambassador to Maldives Joern Rohde has said that this is ‘disturbing’.

In a series of tweets sent out on Wednesday, the ambassador noted the importance of free and fair elections.

Noting that ‘free and fair elections are the feast of democracy,' Rohde said that he hoped the Maldives is able to experience this on September 23.

However, the ambassador emphasized that reports of authorities ‘suddenly’ investigating the opposition candidate is disturbing.

He noted that this is against the European Union Council’s call on the Maldivian government ‘to engage with the leaders of the opposition in a genuine dialogue that paves the way for credible, transparent and inclusive Presidential elections’.

“In a democracy free and fair elections also mean providing a level playing field for all political stakeholders,” said the ambassador, adding that it is the Maldivian government’s responsibility to ensure this.

Rohode’s tweets comes less than a day after a senior Maldivian official accused ‘one or two ambassadors in Colombo’ of misleading their governments regarding the Maldives situation.

While Rohde’s name was not mentioned by the official, he is among the few ambassadors residing in Colombo. He is amongst the three European Union representatives that visited the Maldives in February this year, following an open invitation by the government to foreign representatives as the political conflict here intensified. However, the government refused to meet with them.