Speaking during his tour of Addu City, former MDP President Abdulla Shahid painted a bleak picture of life under President Muizzu’s administration, pointing to stagnating development and a citizenry increasingly sidelined by what he described as erratic and inconsistent policymaking.

Shahid argued that residents of Addu are not asking for handouts but for a functioning system — one built on transparency, responsiveness, and steady progress. He warned that the country risks sliding back into an era where ordinary people must plead for services that should be theirs by right.

Central to his criticism was the country’s worsening medicine shortage. Shahid recounted meeting an elderly man in Addu who has relied on the same heart medication for a quarter of a century, only to discover it has vanished from pharmacies nationwide. The man’s most recent supply, Shahid said, came from a pharmacy in Ha. Dhiddhoo, and he is now importing the drug himself from India after government pharmacies confirmed they no longer stock it.

For Shahid, stories like these are not isolated incidents but symptoms of a broader collapse in governance. He accused the administration of dodging accountability for rising living costs and dwindling access to essentials, calling the situation undeniable proof that the government has failed to deliver on its promises.