Maldivians 'want coalitions,' says defence minister

Defence Minister Mariya Ahmed Didi has said that Maldivians ‘want coalitions.’

The minister made the comment in an interview to ‘Strategic News International’, adding that Maldives has “not had one single party winning an election” since the constitution was amended.

While she noted that “no coalition has stayed together”, Mariya emphasized that the country is learning from each election.

“We are hoping our coalition partners have also learnt from this experience. They have always said they want the coalition to survive. That has been at the top leadership level. We have had this coalition going for the last three years. We have lived through it. It is not very easy to come three years with coalition partners do so before we came into government, we have had this relationship going and we hope the relationship will survive the five years. I see a lot of political will in the leadership to make it survive. It has been many compromises. We have to have even more compromises,” she noted.

However, she noted that they will not give up their principles,

“We will keep our principles intact and agree to disagree. In the coalition they will be times when we won’t agree, but when we won’t agree also it will be an agreement not to agree,” she added.

The current ruling coalition comprises of Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), Jumhooree Party (JP), Adhaalath Party (AP) and the breakaway faction of Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM).

Leader of the parties- former Presidents Mohamed Nasheed and Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, Qasim Ibrahim and Maumoon Abdul Gayoom- have stated on numerous occasions that they will do “everything” to keep the coalition intact.

Through their work to reform the country, all four opposition leaders had decided to unite behind a common candidate for this year’s election. Ibrahim Mohamed Solih emerged victorious against the-President Abdulla Yameen.

However, there have been signs of tension in the coalition as senior party officials continue to criticize decisions of the other parties.