The presidential candidate of Jumhooree Party (JP) MP Qasim Ibrahim says that the public keeps asking him about defending and protecting national independence and sovereignty.

He says that the public is questioning whether the present government is able to rightly defend and protect the national independence and sovereignty of the country.

MP Qasim made the comments in an audio message sent to his Northern campaign team that was celebrating Independence Day under the slogan “The Maldivian nation belongs to the Maldivians”.

MP Qasim in his audio message said that the fight for independence was led and won by President Ibrahim Nasir and that the nation should try to value his priceless effort.

MP Qasim noted and praised President Maumoon Abdul Qayoom who ruled the country after President Nasir had left the country in 1978 for thirty years uninterrupted for defending and protecting the hard-won independence from the United Kingdom on 26 July 1965.

“From all the corners of the nation, I hear a single call from the people. Their demand is that the Maldives must remain Maldivian,” said MP Qasim.

MP Qasim was saddened to see traits, qualities, and characters required for defending and protecting the nationhood of the country diminishing and disappearing from the people who run the present government.