Ex-President Nasheed to contest in MDP's primaries

Opposition leader and former President Mohamed Nasheed has said that he will be contesting in his party’s primary elections, despite still not being able to run in the upcoming presidential elections.

In a tweet posted in Dhivehi on Sunday, the leader of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) reiterated that the Joint Opposition will unite behind one candidate for the presidential elections, but that the candidate ‘will be decided after individual party primaries’.

“I will hopefully contest in MDP’s primary elections and my campaign manager will be North-Hithadhoo constituency MP Mohamed Aslam,” added Nasheed to the tweet.

While the former president has announced that he will be running in the party primaries, he is currently barred from running in the elections after being sentenced to 13 years in prison on terror charges in March 2015. Not long after, the parliament passed a law, barring people serving prison sentences from political party leadership, effectively ousting him from the leadership of the party he co-founded.

However, he has not lost hope in running in the presidential elections. Speaking the 41st annual convention of The Capital Maharaja Organisation Limited (TCMOL) held in Colombo, Sri Lanka last week, Nasheed said that circumstances will allow him to contest, at the last minute.

“The way things are, I do not have a chance in contesting in the elections. It will be as such until the very last minute. However, at the last minute they will decide to allow me to contest,” Nasheed had said.

Earlier in April, the United Nations Human Rights Committee informed Maldivian authorities to “restore his right to stand for office, including the office of President”, noting that resulting restrictions on Nasheed- over a conviction based on ‘vague legislation’ and ‘serious flaws’- ‘violated his right to political participation under article 25 of the ICCPR (International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights’. However, the government has rejected the opinions adopted by the UN body.

While there have questions on whether an election could be held this year, the Elections Commission has assured that the first round of the Presidential Elections will be held in September, and that they will open applications for candidates in June. The Joint Opposition still maintains that they will be backing a single candidate in the election.

Maldives Joint Opposition comprises of MDP, Jumhooree Party (JP), Adhaalath Party (AP) and former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom’s faction of the ruling Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM).