This one letter, taking sides with Mauritius without getting approval from the Parliament left a majority of the Maldivians feeling betrayed as such a big declaration was made by the President without consulting the people.
Presidency.gov
The Chagos Islands dispute has triggered additional challenges within the political landscape of the Maldives. With various countries staking claims over the Chagos Islands, the Maldives became embroiled in a distinct situation, pitted against Mauritius in a battle for Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) rights. While the Maldives previously held complete jurisdiction over this zone, Mauritius' pursuit of ownership over the Chagos Islands jeopardized the Maldives' maritime territories, prompting them to determine their rightful share of the EEZ.
While the entire public was engaged in the conversation of how much of the EEZ the Maldives would be left with, especially in Southern islands where fishermen are known to go into the said zone for fishing, news broke out that the President of the Maldives had officially taken a stand on the claims over the Chagos Islands. Though the Maldives has historically always stood with the British over the stance on these islands, in a letter addressed to the Prime Minister of Mauritius, the President of the Maldives Ibrahim Mohamed Solih supported the Mauritius claims over the Chagos Islands.
For outsiders, this might not be such a big issue as Presidents of countries make such supportive statements all the time. However, the issues arose when people discovered that the President wrote and sent out this letter without getting an approval from the Parliament of the Maldives.
Following this news, a petition was filed in the Supreme Court of the Maldives on behalf of the former Home Minister Umar Naseer, Mohamed Musthaq as well as Lt. Col. (Rtd) Zubair Ahmed Manik seeking a declaration that the letter sent by the President of the Maldives to be unconstitutional as Article 3 of the Constitution of the Maldives states that any changes in the territory of the Maldives must be made by a majority of at least two-thirds of the total number of members of the Parliament.
This one letter, taking sides with Mauritius without getting approval from any other Governning body left a majority of the Maldivians feeling betrayed as such a big declaration was made by the President without consulting even the Parliament members of the nation.
During a press conference that was held on 18th May 2023, the opposition party MP from Maduvvari, Adam Shareef has stated that they will be filing a no-confidence motion against the President very soon as the biggest neglect when it came to the decision that was made in the EEZ zone issues came from the President. Though the decision on the EEZ zones were made in favour of the Maldives on paper, to a majority of the people, the Maldives took a big loss as the country had to split their EEZ zone with Chagos Islands, which still is unclaimed and not recognised as a sovereign nation.
“In fact, the biggest negligence and the biggest betrayal to the entire country was by the President. We now believe that we will hopefully soon be able to move a no-confidence motion against the President".
With the opposition having made it clear that they will be carrying out no-confience motions against anyone who has neglected the country in the Chagos Island EEZ zone case, a no confidence motion has already been filed against the Attorney General Ibrahim Riffath.
