President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has criticized opposition political parties after saying that the government's opponents' ideology was to centralize services in the country and that this would hinder the country's growth.
The President made the comments while speaking at the ceremony held to launch the MDP candidate for the Kommandoo constituency Mohamed Rashid's campaign.
President Solih said that a decentralized system is required for citizens to acquire government services from each island itself.
However, he warned that if candidates who are opposed to decentralization are elected, this would in turn hinder government services within the region.
The President went on to say that the public must cast their votes against drug abuse, money laundering, and those who bring about coups. President Solih highlighted the war against drug abuse as one of the major issues plaguing the nation at the moment and pointed out the many drug hauls seized during his tenure so far.
Speaking at the launch of his campaign, MDP candidate Rashid said that the former government had been negligent of the Kommandoo constituency and that the opposition coalition should now be ashamed to visit the islands within the constituency to ask for votes when they had not visited the region during their tenure.
Rashid also said that the government would establish fundamental services in the constituency and assured that MDP would win the by-election by a huge margin.
All major political parties have fielded candidates for the Komandoo by-election scheduled for next month. The Elections Commission was forced to table the by-election after the MP for Komandoo constituency late Hussain Waheed passed away last month after battling cancer.
