President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has stated that he is actively campaigning for candidates representing main-ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) due to the current state of the parliament.
Speaking at a campaign event at Feydhoo island of southernmost Addu city on Wednesday, the President said the authority to govern the country as president is not simply enough, as there are several work that needs to be done through the parliament to fulfill his presidential pledges.
"Even if its the reform of Decentralization Act, or reforming the tax policy, or reforming the independent entities and the judicial system, we have to go through the parliament to achieve it", said the President.
"We need legal authority to bring about the changes we desire for the country. All issues are at a stop, we have been unable to do much of the work we wanted through the parliament at the pace we wished thus far", added the President.
The president noted that the parliament was effectively obstructing the government in fulfilling pledges, even though the parliament majority is held by the ruling coalition. This has forced the president himself to set out to actively campaign for MDP candidates for the upcoming parliamentary election, he said.
"I could no longer believe that the parliament campaign was headed in the right direction. We could no longer believe that we could attain the kind of parliament we desired. Therefore, I was forced to practically participate in the campaigns personally to advocate for our candidates, the MDP candidates, in order to elect them [for the parliament]", the President said.
The President further said the citizens of the nation voted for him in hopes of bringing about reform. He assured that the work he is currently doing is towards reform and will continue to work tirelessly towards fulfilling the pledges made.
President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih being welcomed by supporters.
