Former President and current Speaker of Parliament Mohamed Nasheed has asserted that he will not lose the primary elections.

During his first press conference following the assassination attempt aimed at him on May 6, he stated that he would only contest in an election to win it.

Nasheed said that the main ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) does not have a policy that allows tickets without a primary election and that President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih only received the party ticket without a primary election, after the party's National Congress decided to grant it.

From Speaker Nasheed’s words it was evident that MDP’s presidential elections’ tickets for 2023 would be decided through a primary election. He affirmed his belief that he could win the national congress elections. He said that he would back all those who support a parliamentary system, and that who he supported was up to him.

He stated that MDP has always supported the parliamentary system.

Speaker Nasheed said that he hoped that citizens would vote in favor of the parliamentary system next year.

It was decided that the former leader of MDP’s parliamentary group, and current president of the Maldives would be granted MDP’s presidential ticket in June 2018, during the MDP congress in Alif Alif Ukulhas.

President Solih was granted the ticket by the vote of 791 members.

Nasheed also revealed that he would politically collaborate with currently incarcerated former president Abdulla Yameen if he did not mirror the opposition's claims against India.

Speaker Nasheed is currently residing in the UK for treatment of his injuries sustained in the May 6th IED attack.