“WE HAVE coral beaches and azure water,” said Mohamed Jameel, a former vice-president of the Maldives, speaking from London, which has neither, on June 1st. “But there is trouble in paradise.” Mr Jameel was speaking alongside Mohamed Nasheed, his country’s first democratically elected president, who was ousted in 2012, jailed on dubious terrorism charges in 2015, allowed to go to London for medical treatment in January and granted asylum on May 23rd. The former rivals, along with other politicians who have fallen afoul of the increasingly repressive current president, Abdulla Yameen, appealed for free and fair elections. That seems an increasingly distant prospect.
An election seems likely enough to happen. But Mr Yameen is preparing for the 2018 campaign not by making his case to the voters, but by banning unauthorised public banners—meaning, in practice, those for any candidate other than himself. Meanwhile, giant billboards depicting a benignly smiling Mr Yameen—alongside the money his government is spending on roads, mosques, football pitches and the like—have begun popping up all over the capital, Malé.
A bill is...Continue reading
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