COLOMBO: A Commonwealth panel will discuss the Maldives' membership within the next week following allegations that the ousting of the president was a breach of the group's democratic standards.
A three-member Commonwealth team completed investigations in the Maldives on Sunday and will report to a panel that deals with serious violations of the bloc's political values, the Commonwealth secretariat said in a statement.
"Our observations and recommendations will be presented to the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMEG), which will meet in London in the coming week," the team said in the statement late Sunday as it left the Maldives.
Mohamed Waheed, the new president, had welcomed the Commonwealth mission to probe the fall earlier this month of his predecessor Mohamed Nasheed, who says he was forced to resign in a military coup backed by extremists.
Nasheed, the Muslim nation's first democratically elected leader who came to power in 2008, has refused to recognise the new government and demanded early elections in a country otherwise known as a luxury tourist destination.
Waheed, who is from a rival political party, was Nasheed's deputy and took over on February 7 following a police mutiny that capped three weeks of opposition protests in the island capital Male.
Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2012
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