[Bangla Daily Star] The first democratically elected president of the Maldives resigned yesterday and was replaced by his vice president after the police and army clashed in the streets of the island nation amid protests over the arrest of a top judge.Mohammed Waheed Hassan, who previously worked as a top UNICEF official, was sworn in as the new Maldivian president in the afternoon. Soon after, the judge was released.
In a televised address, Hassan promised to protect his predecessor, Mohamed Nasheed, from retribution and called for the chaos in the streets to stop.
"I urge everyone to make this a peaceful country," he said.
His announcement came after Nasheed appeared to have lost the support of the Indian Ocean nation's military which, according to army front man Colonel Abdul Raheem Abdul Latheef, had advised him to step down.
"The president on his own initiative came to the military headquarters for advice ... on whether he should resign and then he got the message," Latheef said.
| "Okay, okay already! I quit! Stop pointing that at me!" |
Nasheed presented his resignation in a nationally televised address after police joined the protesters and then clashed with soldiers in the streets. Some of the soldiers then defected to the police side.
"I don't want to hurt any Maldivian. I feel my staying on in power will only increase the problems, and it will hurt our citizens," Nasheed said. "So the best option available to me is to step down."
A presidential official described the unrest as "an attempted coup" by former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who Nasheed turfed out of power in the country's first democratic presidential elections in 2008.