Today is this century's 'Big Thursday': Mausoom

1st November 2018 marks an important day for Maldivian democracy and is this century’s ‘Bodu Buraasfathi’, or ‘Big Thursday’, says Jumhooree Party vice president Abdulla Mausoom.

In a tweet he posted this morning, Mausoom highlighted three important events that are to take place; the arrival of opposition leader Mohamed Nasheed who has been living in self-imposed exile, the impeachment of parliament speaker Abdulla Maseeh, and the election of Jumhooree Party leader Qasim Ibrahim as parliament speaker.

A motion to impeach parliament speaker Maseeh has been scheduled for a parliament sitting on Thursday night. The Joint Opposition has announced support for Qasim to replace him.

Former President Nasheed is to arrive in the Maldives this evening, after years of living in exile under the protection of the British government. Nasheed was sentenced to prison on criminal charges widely considered to be politically influenced, although the Supreme Court, which previously rejected Nasheed’s appeal of this sentence, this week issued a stay order on enforcing it.

In context, in 1974, then President Ibrahim Nasir had arrested his vice president Ahmed Zaki along with other ‘conspirators’ who attempted to overthrow him. Critics of Nasir’s government called this day the ‘Bodu Buraasfathi’, and former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who succeeded Nasir and was arrested alongside Zaki, later declared this as 'a black day' in the country's history.