I have full faith in the competency and unity of our coalition: Nasheed

Former President Mohamed Nasheed, whose return after years in exile is being celebrated by thousands across the Maldives, has expressed his guarantee that the opposition coalition will remain united.

The opposition leader said as such while answering questions from journalists at a press conference on Thursday evening.

“I have full faith in the competency of this coalition, that President [Ibrahim] Solih and our partners can accomplish everything we have pledged”, Nasheed said.

Nasheed also said that the unity of the coalition remains intact and that the concerns of individual parties are well communicated and addressed.

“We are very capable of speaking openly with one another. I am sure that President Maumoon [Abdul Gayoom] will not be isolated, that President Solih will not be isolated, that Sheikh Imran [Abdulla] will not be isolated and that honourable Qasim Ibrahim will not be isolated”, Nasheed said.

These comments come as critics of the coalition claim that rivalry between parties will serve to disrupt the functioning of government and that Nasheed’s return undermines the authority of president-elect Ibrahim Solih.

At the press conference, Nasheed also heavily criticized defeated President Abdulla Yameen and said that his electoral loss was the result of his own actions.

“We have known that Yameen will cause his own down fall, because we knew his policies and decisions to be wrong. It is Yameen himself that he must blame for his loss”, Nasheed also said.

Nasheed went on to say that he welcomes Yameen’s decision to stay in local politics, having described a strong opposition as the cornerstone of a healthy democracy.

However, when asked if Nasheed or the incoming government would work to obstruct the current ruling party and President Yameen, as means of attaining justice for having unlawfully and unfairly imprisoned himself and other opposition leaders, the ‘island president’ said he has ‘no intention to kick a dead creature’.