Parties agree to agenda of Roadmap Talks after MDP accedes

The All Party Roadmap Talks have finally yielded a positive step forward as all political parties represented in the sit-down reached an agreement to the agenda following the decision by the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) to accede after three months of strife over its order. After yesterday’s meeting, Moderator of the Talks Ahmed Mujthaba revealed that the agenda comprising of six items would give precedence to finding a way to resolve the ongoing political conflict in the Maldives.

The rest of the items on the agenda include determining the present condition of the State budget, finding out the issues that needed to be reformed within independent institutions and posts, dialogue with regard to amendments and new laws that needed to be passed and discussions pertaining to the amendments needed to the constitution, Mujthaba detailed.

In addition, the agenda includes discussions related to the date of holding presidential elections.

Mujthaba added that further to agreeing to the agenda, yesterday’s meeting also resulted in reaching a consensus over the proceedings of the next scheduled meeting of the Roadmap Talks.

To that end, “the next meeting would take place over a three consecutive day retreat,” he said.

He detailed that the sit-down would be held from May 31 to June 2, while expressing hope that the participants would be able to reach an accord over all the issues up for discussion.

Though there had been divergences of opinion with regard to the representation of other political parties in the discussions, Mujthaba stressed that the following meetings of the Talks would continue to include the current nine political parties.

MDP Spokesperson International Affairs and Henveiru-South constituency MP Hamid Abdul Ghafoor who represented the party at yesterday’s meeting expressed satisfaction over the proceedings of the sit-down.

“The deadlock has now been broken. We informed that we had no reservations over the way the items of the agenda is set,” Hamid said.

The All Party Talks had been initiated in February, but had been stalled after the pro-government political parties had failed to come to a consensus with MDP over the ordering of the agenda.
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