The immigration department issued 329 passports in a single day. Working hours were extended to handle a surge in applications ahead of the Eid holidays.
Hundreds of residents have been leaving the capital to spend the weeklong holiday overseas or on other islands. With no travel restrictions for the first time in two years, most speedboat ferries and domestic flights, as well as guesthouses on islands near Malé, are reportedly fully booked.
The Met Office expects rainfall and rough seas over the holidays. The coastguard started inspecting vessels in the Greater Malé region for compliance with safety standards.
The Maldivian Democratic Party’s elections committee has accepted complaints of undue influence by Economic Development Minister Fayyaz Ismail’s campaign, the spokesman of rival candidate MP Imthiyaz Fahmy told the press. The pair face off in the ruling party’s chairperson election in just over two weeks.
The minister’s campaign is accused of abusing state resources to create jobs from state-owned enterprises and to sack or intimidate Imthiyaz’s supporters.
The allegations probed by the committee included a manager at the Gaaf Dhaal Gadhdhoo Fenaka office ordering an employee not to join a campaign activity, the suspension of a Fenaka employee in Baa Fehendhoo, and the use of the Gaaf Alif Nilandhoo Fenaka office for a campaign event.
But the Fayyaz camp denied the claims and appealed the decisions. The sub-committee that looked into the complaints was constituted in contravention of the MDP’s regulations, they contended.
Long-simmering factional strife in the MDP spilled out into the open as the battle lines were drawn for the internal elections.
The Supreme Court declined to halt the dismissal of two senior police officers. Former assistant commissioners Mohamed Jamsheed and Ahmed Mohamed sought an injunction pending a judgment by the civil court on their legal challenge of the police board’s decision. But the apex court upheld both the civil court and the High Court’s refusal to grant a stay order.
During an official visit to India, former president Mohamed Nasheed reiterated allegations about China dragging the Maldives into a debt trap. Nasheed, who is also the speaker of parliament and president of the ruling party, contends that projects were carried out at inflated costs and were designed to allow China to demand an ownership stake, allegations that have been angrily denied by the rising superpower.
“China wanted to create autocracy and remove democracy from Maldives, set up a dictatorship and then do whatever they wanted to,” Nasheed was quoted as saying during a lecture moderated by former foreign secretary Shyam Saran. In interviews with Indian media, the former president also criticised the opposition’s ‘India Out’ protests and backed the government’s efforts to ban the campaign.
During his trip, Nasheed met with the Indian external affairs minister and called on the Lok Sabha speaker.
The Anti-Corruption Commission asked for the recovery of MVR1.5 million (US$97,300) owed to the state in cases concluded during the past month, including MVR1.4 million in unpaid rent and fines for 10 plots leased from Raa Alifushi and US$11,244 spent illegally in 2007 from a corporate credit card issued to the president’s residence.
The watchdog revealed last December that MVR3.8 billion worth of stolen assets needed to be recovered.
Citing a spike in cases, the Health Protection Agency urged caution over the spread of dengue fever and advised measures to prevent mosquito breeding.
Former president Mohamed Nasheed will contest in the ruling party’s 2023 presidential primary, MP Eva Abdulla declared during a campaign event for MP Imthiyaz Fahmy’s bid for chairman of the Maldivian Democratic Party.
Nasheed, who wants a shift to the parliamentary system, previously ruled out challenging President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih for the MDP’s presidential ticket. But earlier this week he urged the party’s members not to let the MDP “drown with this sinking government.”
The upcoming internal election on 14 May is widely seen as a showdown between rival factions loyal to Nasheed and Solih.
The judicial watchdog reprimanded Judge Abdulla Ali over his purported failure to uphold public trust in the judiciary and maintain the perception of impartiality. The civil court’s chief judge was found to have violated ethical standards in dismissing a case after the recipient of a summons requested a deferral citing a prior summons by a magistrate court.
As a punitive measure, the Judicial Service Commission admonished the judge and ordered him to complete a training programme. The same punishment was prescribed for a magistrate found to have promoted a business in a Viber group.
The Supreme Court ruled that the High Court must hear the state’s appeal of the court-ordered release of businessman Ahmed Moosa, known as ‘Ammaty,’ who was facing multiple fraud charges over the Sealife apartments scandal, an alleged scam in which more than 200 buyers made payments for flats that were never built.
The top court set a precedent on counting the 48-hour period for filing an appeal.
A one-year-old child who went missing was found dead in the sea on Shaviyani Kanditheemu island. The child was quickly found but was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital, the council told the media.
The Health Protection Agency scaled back its Covid-19 call centre from 24 hours to only official working hours and stopped arranging online consultations with a doctor. For medical care or emergencies, patients with Covid-19 and their direct contacts in quarantine were urged to contact their nearest hospital or the emergency medical service at 100.
