Police case filed to investigate alleged bribes to MPs

A police case has been filed to investigate alleged bribes given to parliament members.

The Parliament's Communication Director, Hassan Ziyau, confirmed to AVAS that Parliament Speaker Mohamed Nasheed had filed a complaint with the police to investigate the allegations of bribery involving some MPs who changed their party ahead of the presidential election. The case was filed with the police on Saturday evening, he said.

Nasheed, who was until recently the main face of the main-ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), joined MDP's break-off party, the Democrats, following an internal conflict within the MDP. Several MPs and other prominent politicians from MDP also defected to the party. However, many of these members are now returning to the MDP after a brief stint with The Democrats.

In the wake of the defections, Nasheed on Saturday took to Twitter to express his outrage. He alleged that bribery was involved to entice the Democrats' members to return to MDP. He said President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih was shamelessly and fearlessly poaching MPs by using state funds to entice them and warned President Solih that his actions would yield no positive outcomes but instead expose him.

Nasheed's anger comes while Kulhudhuffushi North MP Yasir Abdul Latheef and Thoddoo MP Hassan Shiyan have recently rejoined the MDP after a short period with The Democrats.

Other senior officials of The Democrats also allege that their members are being financially incentivized to rejoin the MDP. However, the MDP denies the allegations.