Former President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has been selected as the former ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP)’s interim leader.

The decision was passed during the ninth meeting of the fourth session of the national council, hosted in Ukulhas island of Alif Alif atoll on Thursday.

The resolution seeking to elect Solih as the party’s interim leader, was passed with the votes of 47 parliamentarians present.

The president of the Thimarafushi constituency of the MDP National Council, Anwar Ibrahim proposed the resolution to temporarily appoint the former president as their leader.

It was also proposed that the party's members in the cabinet during the previous MDP government should be declared as members of the existing National Council until the end of the fourth term of the national council.

National Council member and MDP’s administrative deputy chairperson Ibrahim Waheed backed the resolution.

The party’s estranged former leader and former president Mohamed Nasheed left MDP following controversies amid an internal conflict within the party.

Nasheed has since formed a new party, ‘The Democrats’.