Former President of the Maldives and current Speaker of the Parliament Mohamed Nasheed on Saturday recalled the events of February 8, 2012 during which he was forced to step down as president on the back of a police mutiny.
Eight years ago, Nasheed, who is widely credited with bringing democracy to the archipelago, resigned on February 7 after weeks of opposition protests erupted into a police mutiny.
After handing power to his Vice President Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik, the country's first democratically elected president led a protest the next day, describing his downfall as a coup d'etat. The protest against the new government was carried out across the country.
During the demonstrations, several supporters of Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) and senior officials of the party sustained several injuries, and protestors torched government buildings and vandalised state property.
Recalling the events, Nasheed on Saturday posted a tweet stating that the supporters of the party took to the streets eight years ago believing that the previous day's events were a coup d'etat, and with the intention of taking back their rule. By evening, a large number of MDP members were unjustly assaulted, but even then, the party was convinced that its belief that their ideologies and rule would once again prevail, said Nasheed.
During last year's presidential election, the party through a coalition made a comeback by successfully defeating then president Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayyoom in the election. With senior party MP Ibrahim Mohamed Solih as the country's President, Nasheed stepped into his role as the Parliament's Speaker after the party won supermajority of the Parliament.
MDP won the presidential election by working together and forming a coalition with the very parties that had worked to topple his presidency back in 2012. While some of the leading protestors are presently ruling-coalition leaders and appointed as cabinet ministers, MDP is often criticized by the public for continuing to describe the events of 2012 as a coup d'etat.
