‘They told me if I didn’t resign they would resort to use arms,’ he said. ‘I took it as a threat. I wanted to negotiate the lives of the people who were serving in my government.’ He added that he feared his vice president was ‘in on it’, referring to Mohamed Waheed, who was sworn in as head of state on Tuesday. ‘I am afraid he’s always entertained an idea to become the president. He’s never been able to do that. When the opportunity was available to him, he took it,’ the 44-year-old said, adding that Waheed was a ‘puppet’ of the security forces. Waheed, a former UN worker and parliamentarian, denied any involvement in a coup on Wednesday and said he would ensure the rule of law was upheld. The army denies they toppled Nasheed. Nasheed’s resignation came after a small band of policeman mutinied on Tuesday morning and refused to obey an order to break up an anti-government protest where demonstrators were demanding the president step down. The officers then took over state television. Nasheed explained that he then went to military headquarters and found a group of men, some of them carrying small arms, who gave him an ultimatum. He said he did not recognise any of them. Some were in uniform and some were without. ‘They said that if I did not resign by one o’clock they would not hesitate to do anything and it was obvious what they were talking about,’ he said. He claims he was then driven by the men to the presidential office where ‘they forced me to write a resignation letter’ on presidential letterheaded paper. He announced the decision in a press conference broadcast to the nation. The father of two daughters said the coup was hatched by opposition parties, particularly the one headed by former strongman Maumoon Abdul Gayoom who he beat in the islands’ first democratic presidential elections in 2008. Islamist radicals had been used as part of the attack on his record in office, he said, referring to public statements alleging he was under the influence of Jews and was trying to bring Christianity to the Muslim nation. ‘They (the opposition) feared they had no chance in the election next year,’ he said. ‘There is no reason why people should be toppling the government.’ Presidential elections are scheduled for November 2013. Since the initial mutiny on Tuesday morning, Nasheed said mobs had smashed up the offices of his Maldivian Democratic Party and a party worker had been murdered. He also said that Islamists had smashed up statues in the National Museum beleiving they were idolatrous under Islam, which is the only religion that can be legally practised in the country of 300,000 people. Nasheed stood by his record in office and said he had ‘no regrets’ about any of the decisions he had taken. Demonstrators had taken to the streets over the last three weeks after he ordered the army to arrest the head of the Criminal Court Chief Justice Abdulla Mohamed on charges of misconduct and favouring opposition figures. ‘We have to reform the judiciary,’ he told AFP. ‘The judiciary was handpicked by Gayoom. They are protecting Gayoom and his cronies from 30 years of corruption, misuse of power and human rights abuses.’ Gayoom was Asia’s longest serving leader until his defeat in the 2008 polls ended 30 years of autocratic rule. He regularly imprisoned Nasheed, a political activist who was once an Amnesty International prisoner of conscience held in solitary confinement. Nasheed said his biggest achievements in government were encouraging freedom of expression and assembly, as well as building homes in the crowded capital Male and improving sanitation and drinking water facilities. He said he was not under house arrest but had had his passport seized. His next move will be decided by his party’s council, which meets later Wednesday. ‘We have to revert back to a democratically elected government,’ he said, criticising the new president’s vow to bring in a national unity government. ‘He cannot have other parties. The people gave a mandate to our parties and me. He was my running mate and should be following the principles of our manifesto.’
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