The Opposition Coalition has accused the speaker of the parliament Mohamed Nasheed of instigating unrest at the Elections Commission yesterday amid stern accusations from the President of the Commission against the opposition.
In a statement, the opposition coalition said that several members of the public had gathered at the Commission's headquarters amid reports that election officials were reopening sealed ballot boxes and that members of the ruling MDP had disrupted the peace at the office.
The statement read that the people of Maldives had chosen opposition and former President Abdullah Yameen's ideology on Saturday's local council election.
But it accused President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih and Speaker Nasheed of ignoring the result of the elections and exerting their power over the commission to change the outcome of the polls and had spoken of their intentions in front of reporters.
The Opposition said that evidence was mounting that certain parties are trying to influence the outcome of the elections and this includes entering wrong results to the Commission website after announcing different results at the ballot boxes.
It also said that its supporters had gathered at the Commission yesterday having heard that the Speaker say that he would unseal the ballot boxes to turn the election result in favor of his party and amid reports that such an action was already underway.
The strongly-worded statement also said that the situation at the commission had escalated when the Nasheed and MDP top officials had arrived on the scene. It said that they had provoked the crowd by aiming strong words at those gathered at the commission and also made rude hand gestures.
The opposition also said that once the situation had escalated, security forces had used pepper spray against members of the public who were fasting and that it vehemently condemned these actions.
It added that the President of the Commission had attempted to tarnish the opposition's name by insisting that it had initiated the violence yesterday and that it cannot accept such blatant accusations.
