Major cabinet expansion in crisis-hit Maldives today

MALE: Maldives new President Mohamed Waheed Hassan is set to conduct a major cabinet expansion today, even as his deposed predecessor Mohammed Nasheed postponed his scheduled visit to his power centre Addu, where his supporters had alleged a violent crackdown.

Government sources said a major cabinet expansion will take place today as the new president makes efforts to establish a "national unity" government.

Soon after taking over as the new President, Hassan had made urgent appointments of retired Colonel Mohamed Nazim as the Defence Minister and lawyer Mohamed Jameel Ahmed as the Home Minister as the setting up of a national unity cabinet was taking time.

Waheed, whose first few days in office have been quite tumultuous, had called for chaos on the streets to stop and for restoration of peace and calm.

"The way of responsible leaders is not (to) cause strife among the people. The way of responsible leaders should be to resolve disputes peacefully through dialogue," he said in a statement yesterday.

Nasheed, who has refused to give up his claim as the legitimate leader of the country, was set to visit Addu city today but the visit was postponed this morning.

Nasheed was set to fly out from here today afternoon to visit the atoll that had hosted the SAARC summit last year, but he postponed he plan due to unspecified reasons.

Addu city is the one of the major strongholds of the Maldivian Democratic Party of Nasheed, and was the only city besides Male that witnessed violence following his ouster.

"The departure has been postponed," the party sources said saying further details will be given later on.