News Desk
MALE’ — Former Finance Minister Moosa Zameer said on Tuesday night that health concerns were behind his resignation, telling a PNC rally he stepped aside to make room for someone who could give the job what it demands.
“Holding on to that position while my health would not allow me to perform at the required level is not something that would serve the party well,” Zameer said, speaking at a PNC jagaha event hours after submitting his resignation letter to President Mohamed Muizzu. “I stepped aside to give capable people the opportunity.”
He was unambiguous about where his loyalties sit. Despite leaving the cabinet, he said he remained firmly behind the president and was ready to take on whatever responsibility the party asked of him.
Zameer described the past six months as among the most demanding he had faced in public life. Tracking oil price movements, managing the country’s external debt obligations and navigating a volatile global economic environment had taken a toll, he said.
He also used the occasion to situate himself within the longer arc of the nationalist political movement in the Maldives, arguing that the DRP, PPM and PNC were expressions of the same political idea under different names and leaders. That torch, he said, now rests with President Muizzu, whose “Maldives First” foreign policy he praised as a break from predecessors who he suggested had prioritised other countries’ interests over the Maldives’.
Zameer first served in the current administration as Foreign Minister before moving to Finance in a cabinet reshuffle in September 2024. His ministry’s mandate was later expanded to include oversight of public enterprises.
