Speaker of Parliament and leader of Jumhooree Party (JP), Qasim Ibrahim, has said that no person may want to step forward to campaign for position of President in the future, if every single President gets thrown in jail.

Qasim said this while speaking at the inauguration of the campaign hall for Parliamentary hopeful with JP ticket for the Henveiru-South constituency, Iruthisham Adam.

The leader of JP said that tradition in this country has shown us that any person who has risen to the position of President in Maldives has been sent to prison. He added that this has been routinely seen since the year 2008.

Qasim said that we must stop and think about the reasons for this occurrence and ask ourselves whether this is right. He said that the issue may escalate to a point where there may not be a single person left tomorrow, who wants to run for President.  

While Qasim has said this, former President, Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom, has been ordered by the Criminal Court to be kept in detention until the remainder of his trial on charges of money laundering. President Yameen had then been taken straight from the court to Maafushi Prison.