Several parliamentarians had attempted to execute a coup détat by having ‘abused’ the parliamentary process, said President Abdulla Yameen.

At the inauguration ceremony for a Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) assembly site in capital city Malé, Yameen said that opposition parliamentarians’ efforts to oust members of government and parliament speaker Abdulla Maseeh is ‘clearly treason’.

“Their claims to oust the parliament speaker on the grounds of corruption is clearly an attempted coup détat, we must accept this” Yameen said.

He further said that it was not his ‘duty’ to concern himself with the blatant corruption within parliament, having cited the doctrine of separating powers as a basis for this statement. He added that while opposition MPs garnered the support for a motion of no-confidence against Maseeh, they need to clearly state where they received the funds to spearhead such a motion.

President Yameen had also challenged the leaders of the opposition alliance, former Presidents Mohamed Nasheed and Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, along with MP Qasim Ibrahim and Sheikh Imran Abdulla – who signed a coalition agreement earlier this year – to oust him through ballots.

“Trying to end this administration through a motion of no-confidence is cowardly” Yameen said.

He then said that he does not concern himself with the opposition rhetoric, and does not believe he should provide their accusations with a response.