The goal of the opposition was to ensure that a single candidate will defeat incumbent President Abdullah Yameen and that the best option for this was former President Mohamed Nasheed, says Parliament Member for Henveiru North Constituency Abdullah Shahid.

Speaking to RaajjeMV over his possible candidacy, Shahid said he was guaranteed that the inter-party talks to select a single candidate, for the elections later this year, will be successful. He added that he and other members of Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) hoped that single candidate would be President Nasheed. 

He stressed that this was the aspiration of the Party but not the decision of the Party. Dictating a candidate for the slot, Shahid said, would not be condusive to productive talks. 

Shahid further noted that MDP's nomination will be brought about from a primary and said he wanted to see Nasheed contest in the said primaries. He refuted the possibility of him contesting in the same primary that President Nasheed contested in. 

In addition to this, Shahid had also criticized the foreign policy of the present administration.