No guarantee that the elections in 2023 will be free and fair: Dr Shaheed

Former Foreign Minister and UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief Dr Ahmed Shaheed has once again expressed his concerns over the current political situation in the country.

In a tweet posted on Friday, Dr Shaheed said that there was ‘no guarantee that the elections in 2023 will be free and fair’.

The comment was part of a dialogue spurred on by a statement from Amnesty International, who had condemned the use of brute force on protesters. Dr Shaheed said that Minivan Radio was shut down and most media were bribed, as well as the censure of Maldivian Democracy Network (MDN).

Dissent, he said was, criminalized and therefore, there was no guarantee that 2023 Presidential elections would be free or fair.

This is not the first time Dr Shaheed had spoken about the situation in the Maldives. In a previous tweet Dr Shaheed said that if reports of arrests from the protest to suppress dissent was true, then this administration had joined ranks of the most repressive regimes to have ever governed the country. He had asked whether if it was time to recommend the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group to do a review on the country.

He had also called on President Solih to revoke the Presidential decree issued in April that criminalized the India Out protests. The government had intensified attacks on dissenters, citing that the movement was a national security risk. Protesters have been arrested, banners removed, and journalists covering the protests have been targeted by Police officers.