“Those leaders who use their power to intimidate the people are the weakest,” says MP for Thimarafushi constituency Mohamed Musthafa.

In a series of tweets sent out in Dhivehi on Saturday, the ruling party representative said that those leaders who use their power to intimidate the people are the weakest, adding that accepting such threats is “foolish”.

In another tweet, Musthafa noted that threats are not being directed towards those parliamentarians who have defected from the party, but rather to those in the parliamentary group of the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM).

Musthafa is the only PPM MP critical of the government, that has not faced dismissal from the party.

So far, MPs Ahmed Faris Maumoon, Mohamed Waheed Ibrahim and Mohamed Ameeth have been dismissed from the party. Furthermore, the party’s founder and elected leader, former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom was dismissed from the party on March 27.