A Maldives court today ordered two opposition politicians to be placed under house arrest as police investigate if they tried to bribe independent lawmakers in a bid to unseat the government, AP quoted an official as saying. Lawmakers Abdullah Yameen Abdul Gayoom and Quasim Ibrahim were arrested Tuesday and produced before a court Wednesday night. Their spokesman Umar Naseer said that the judge has ordered them be kept confined to their homes for three days for police to investigate if they tried to bribe lawmakers to vote against the government in Parliament. President Mohamed Nasheed's 13-member Cabinet resigned en masse on Tuesday after accusing Parliament of blocking all of the government's legislative initiatives. The struggle showcases how this tiny Indian Ocean archipelago known as a tourist paradise is enduring tests to its 2-year-old democracy after decades of autocratic rule. Gayoom is a brother of former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who ruled the country for 30 years before being unseated by Nasheed in the country's first-ever democratic election in 2008. Ibrahim was finance minister in the Gayoom regime. The president and the Parliament are elected separately and now both seats of power are controlled by opposing parties, forcing a difficult cohabitation. Nasheed's Maldivian Democratic Party has only 32 seats in the country's 77-member Parliament. The opposition coalition, led by the Dhivehi Raithunge Party, has 36 seats _ three short of a majority. Nine others lawmakers are independents. Naseer, also the DRP deputy leader, dismissed the bribery charges as «completely false.» Meanwhile opposition lawmakers protested in Parliament on Wednesday against the arrests and the sitting was forced to be adjourned early because a tense situation arose, Speaker Abdulla Shahid said.
