Nasheed will return to London on Monday
This is his second trip to the country after having been granted asylum from the British government
Nasheed speaking at the national assembly
Former President will conclude his visit to Sri Lanka on Monday, and return to London.
Nasheed left for Sri Lanka on the 29th of January, this is his second trip to the country after having been granted asylum from the British government. His last trip to Colombo was in August.
His latest visit to Sri Lanka had allowed Nasheed to participate in a Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) national assembly for the first time since the 13-year jail in 2015.
The party had made a set of weighty decisions, namely to boycott the 2018 presidential elections if a candidate of the party’s choosing is not allowed to contest.
Nasheed had announced that he would contest in the party primaries as well.
At a press conference in Colombo earlier this week, Nasheed had announced his decision to contest the elections and welcomed President Abdulla Yameen to run against him.
“If President Yameen has the courage to contest against me, he should, and if he does not, and I am unable to contest, we will put forth another candidate”.
Nasheed added that MDP’s candidate would have his vote and expressed confidence that the international community would help make Maldives conducive of free and fair elections
Numerous locals had flown to Sri Lanka to meet Nasheed, who had also met with supporters residing in Sri Lanka.
Nasheed will fly to Switzerland on the 19th of this month for 2017’s Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy.
