Maldives contemplating a pull out from Commonwealth

Official sources here said that the issue is that of Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG), the disciplinary arm comprising foreign ministers of Commonwealth countries, keeping Maldives on its agenda.

The latest reason for Maldivian ire was the postponement of the decision on removing the Maldives from the agenda of the Commonwealth human rights and democracy arm of the CMAG.

The next meeting is supposed to be held later this month.

"If they don't remove us from the agenda, we might have to pull out," a top source in the government said on condition of anonymity.

Sources said that the Commission of National Inquiry (CNI), which was revised in June on the request of the Commonwealth, has established the present government's legitimacy under President Mohamed Waheed and cleared from all allegation of a coup in February during the transfer of power.

The Commonwealth reviewed the CNI by appointing a Singapore judge as co-chair and the CNI report on August 30 that dismissed claims that a coup forced former president Mohamed Nasheed from the presidency. It had declared that it was a legitimate transfer of power.

President Mohamed Waheed had earlier stressed that as the CNI had ruled that the transfer of power on February 7 had in fact been constitutional, there were no more excuses to keep the Maldives in CMAG's agenda.

CMAG placed the country on its formal agenda in February after it expressed its concerns over the precise nature of Nasheed's resignation.

A member of CMAG itself, the Maldives was subsequently suspended from the group.