A new minister has been appointed to the President’s Office.

Ibrahim Waheed was appointed as a minister at the President’s Office on Wednesday.

President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih presented Waheed with his Letter of Appointment during a ceremony held on Wednesday afternoon.

Positions served by the new minister at the President’s Office include Chairman of the National Social Protection Agency (NSPA) from April 2009 to February 2012, Financial Executive and State Minister for the Ministry of Health and Family from February 2011 to February 2012 as well as the Company Secretary for the Maldives Stock Exchange (MSE) from September 2007 to March 2018.

Waheed also served as the Deputy Managing Director and member of the Board of Directors of FENAKA Corporation Limited.

The new appointment comes shortly after the dismissal of Vice President of the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), Mohamed Shifaz from the post.

He was sacked from his ministerial position on Wednesday.

Shifaz was among the first to be appointed to a political post outside of the President’s Cabinet of Ministers, after President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih came to power in 2018.

The vice president of MDP was appointed as a minister at the President’s Office on 22 November 2018.

Many have been calling for the immediate removal of anti-governmental officials working at senior positions of government offices and state institutions.

The growing rift within the ruling party has been churning chaos within the party’s supporters, which now comprise of two factions; one supporting President Solih and one backing the party’s leader and former president Mohamed Nasheed, who lost the party’s ticket to the upcoming presidential poll in MDP’s recent primary election.