Self exiled former president Mohamed Nasheed is stifling prospective leaders in the main opposition, Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) who could replace him, a senior minister alleged Monday.
Fisheries minister Dr Mohamed Shainee during a program on government aligned Channel 13, branded Nasheed a traitor, saying that the ex-president had betrayed members of MDP, the public and the government when he fled his jail sentence under false pretenses and sought protection from a foreign power.
Nasheed was jailed on terror charges after he was convicted and sentenced to 13 years in prison over the arbitrary detention of a sitting judge while he was president.
Nasheed now lives in self imposed exile in the UK after he was allowed to leave to Britain on medical leave in an internationally brokered deal in January last year.
"He is destroying chances for others in MDP, while he knows that he can't run for the presidency. This is very clear as no MDP member has fared well in a party election. So MDP members have to be mindful of this fact. He is stamping out chances for alternative leadership in MDP," Shainee said.
Nasheed meanwhile had arrived in neighbouring Sri Lanka to meet top party officials in a bid to "reunite" the divided MDP, party sources had said.
According to MDP sources, Nasheed would look to devise a strategy for the upcoming local council elections and hold talks over a candidate for the next presidential elections in 2018.
Nasheed had recently pushed for opposition parties must unite and nominate a single candidate to prevent incumbent president Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom from re-election.
The former president had spent a week in neighbouring Sri Lanka in August last year reportedly to plot an 'imminent' overthrow of the current government.
