Maldives ruling Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) has preconditioned the party will not partake in any multi-party discussions by releasing jailed political dissidents.
Ruling party has counter-conditioned to the opposition's preliminary condition of releasing the now jailed former president of Maldives Maumoon Abdul Gayoom along with Chief Justice Abdulla Saeed and top-court judge Ali Hameed - who were all imprisoned momentarily following presidential decree of state of emergency on February 5 night.
Opposition had also conditioned the release of the nine political prisoners, who according to the Supreme Court's ruling on February 1 should be released.
Additionally the multi-party opposition would not hold talks without the presence of a United Nations representative - a rather ardent condition by the opposition.
Abdulla also requested from the opposition to refrain from calling for the release of convicted criminals, adding the ruling party will not participate in any multi-party discussions if the political prisoners are provided with the opportunity to partake in them as well.
While the political parties are making headway towards a multi-party discussion, the first such discussion took place in 2015. However it ended with disappointing results without any terms or conditions met or agreed.
Following the failure of the ruling party's first attempt to hold 'peace-talks' they initiated several other attempts which were all met with refusal by the opposing parties who placed several preconditions which were eventually unmet.
