As the sun rose over Male on 7 February, the Maldives' first democratically elected president, Mohamed Nasheed, was being held at gunpoint by a dozen or so military officers. He faced a stark choice: resign or allow the country to be drowned in a bloodbath. For Nasheed, a pro-democracy campaigner and former prisoner of conscience who played a pivotal role in toppling former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom's 30-year-long dictatorship, the choice was clear. He would resign.
Gathered outside the military compound at Republic Square – so named for being the scene of a failed coup against Gayoom's regime in November 1988 – were prominent members of the opposition and clergy. Also present were several hundred protestors, many of whom had been on the streets of Male for 22 consecutive nights, demonstrating loudly and often violently against a decision made by Nasheed's government to take Abdulla Mohammed, the chief judge of the Maldives Criminal Court, into military custody. President Nasheed had arrived at the scene, where protests had continued all night, around 6:30 am.
The president had barely been escorted into the military's headquarters before celebrations began in the square. 'He has resigned!' people shouted and cheered. It was as if those outside could see through the high walls of the military compound, as if they knew what was about to happen within those walls. As triumph thickened the air over the square, and as Nasheed was being forced to write his letter of resignation, the country's main television stations were already announcing his resignation. The state television broadcaster, MNBC, had been taken over by defecting members of the Maldives Police Service early that morning.
Videos exist, although not yet in the public domain, of armed officers forcing MNBC staff down on their knees as part of the takeover. Pictures circulating on social-media sites show about 70 security personnel in uniform posing triumphantly in the MNBC compound taken shortly after (see accompanying photo). As television stations pre-emptively announced Nasheed's resignation, prominent opposition leader and 2013 presidential candidate Gasim Ibrahim, who had earlier been at Republic Square, now appeared on VTV, his own television channel. He was beaming widely. 'He has resigned? It has finally happened? … Alhamdh lillah, Allah akbar!' he cried. 'Thanks be to Allah! God is great!'