The Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP), one of Maldives’ older political parties, has decided to support incumbent President Abdulla Yameen in the upcoming elections.

The party’s leader, Mohamed ‘Colonel’ Nasheed, said that the decision to support the government was made in a party council meeting on Sunday.

While the DRP had been one of the largest in the country, its numbers dwindled in the last elections as prominent members of it aligned with the Maldivian Democratic Party before the previous presidential elections.

The party’s then leadership had also founded the Progressive Party of Maldives, the ruling party of which the candidate is Presidential Yameen.

The DRP now has about 5,000 members in total.