Opposition leader Mohamed Nasheed said that he still supports the idea of an interim presidency, but on the condition that changes be made swiftly and that it does not last over a year.

Nasheed said this while speaking to local newspaper Mihaaru, adding that interim presidencies are most efficient when reforms are made as quickly as possible.

Nasheed’s Maldivian Democratic Party and its coalition partner, the Jumhooree Party, called for an interim government to be established following the rift within the ruling party in 2016.

This meant that the party’s primary ticket for the upcoming presidential elections would be given to incumbent President Abdulla Yameen without contest.  The government was quick to describe this as a ploy by the opposition to seize power.

In his interview, Nasheed was confident about his potential to run for the elections in 2018, despite having been sentenced to a jail term on terrorism allegations – described to be trumped up by the international community and an absolute lie by his supporters.

However, the former president opted to not go into too much detail about presidential candidates and said it was more important to solidify the opposition’s joint policies.

Nasheed was confident that ‘whoever’ the opposition puts forth as its presidential candidate in 2018 would ‘beat Yameen anyway’.