Former President Mohamed Nasheed has met with Canadian ambassador to the Maldives, Shelley Whiting.
A tweet Ambassador Whiting posted after the meeting with Maldives’ jailed former leader, she says that the sit-down was over the ‘importance of local governance to a healthy democracy’.
Pleasure to meet w/ @MohamedNasheed - Discussed importance of local governance for strong & healthy democracies & good governance #maldives pic.twitter.com/GwEHO1y69v
— Shelley Whiting (@shelley_whiting) March 21, 2017
Whiting, who had stressed the importance of the local council elections being free and fair, is also the Canadian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka.
Nasheed flew to Sri Lanka earlier this week regarding the upcoming vote of no-confidence against parliament speaker Abdulla Maseeh, slated for Monday, 27th March.
The former president has vehemently pursued briefing foreign dignitaries on the status of democracy in the Maldives, which he has described as diminishing and vowed to amend this when he announced presidential bid for the 2018 elections.
He had visited Sri Lanka earlier this year and called on President Maithripala Sirisena and Vice President Ranil Wickremesinghe, as well as met with US Ambassador Atul Keshap, British Ambassador James Dauris, Australia's High Commisioner Bryce Hutchesson, and the Ambassador of Germany, Jörn Rhode.
A local court had unsuccessfully tried to arrest Nasheed then by issuing a warrant coinciding with a previous visit to Sri Lanka, but failed due to the neighbouring country’s stance on the matter.
