Maldives opposition suspends street protests

Male, Aug. 8 (Xinhua-ANI): The main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) on Wednesday announced it was suspending street protests against the government which had continued since February this year.

MDP spokesman Hamid Abdul Ghafoor told Xinhua the MDP had decided to suspend the demonstrations in order to facilitate meaningful political dialogue to end the political crisis in the country.

The MDP has been staging protests on the streets since the resignation of Mohamed Nasheed as president after what his party claims was a coup d'etat in February orchestrated by elements in the police and military services.

"The National Executive Council (NEC) of MDP unilaterally decided to halt all the demonstrations including street protests. The demonstrations have been focused on calling for that authorities to hold elections as early as possible to legitimize the presidency, end violence perpetrated against civilians by the police and to prosecute those officers seen to be involved in police brutality," Ghafoor said .

Ghafoor said the MDP strongly believes unless there is political dialogue and agreement at a political level, the Maldives will not be able to come out of the current political crisis.

"We are committed to ensure an environment conducive to hold political talks at the highest level. Therefore the MDP decided unilaterally to halt the demonstrations. We hope leaders of political parties take this time to seriously engage in dialogue," Ghafoor said.

Last week the MDP Parliamentary Group also expressed their willingness to cooperate with the administration of President Mohamed Waheed and leaders of all political parties to meaningful talks to agree on a way forward from the current crisis. (Xinhua-ANI)