Former President Mohamed Nasheed is one leader that has remained steadfast in his ideology and in this regard will remain a voice that cannot be silenced, says opposition-aligned MP Mohamed Aslam.

MP Aslam said this at Nasheed’s last campaign event before voting begins on Wednesday, at 02:00pm. Polling stations have been set up across the Maldives and in Sri Lanka, India, Malaysia, and the United Kingdom.

The ballots are being held under irresolute circumstances with the Elections Commission having threatened to dissolve Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) if it allows former president Mohamed Nasheed, its only candidate, to contest. In response to this, MP Aslam said that the party has always overcome obstacles they are faced with. 

“We have always had threats, it is nothing new. The party has come to where it is today despite it, there are people among us that remember having to broadcast radio sessions from another country, there are people who remember having to smuggle compact disks of political recordings from one island to the other” Aslam said at the campaign event on Tuesday. 

MP Aslam has led Nasheed’s campaign for MDP's primary elections. The lawmaker had also officially presented Nasheed’s campaign bid to the party’s secretariat, along with endorsement signatures from over 7,700 people. 

Nasheed’s campaign for primary elections was named after his long-used moniker, ‘Island President’ (Jazeera Raees in Dhivehi). It has taken MP Aslam and his team to 158 islands. Nasheed had also spoken to residents of 115 islands through video calls. The campaign team has also held multiple events in Malé aimed at target demographics such as seniors, the youth, and individuals in creative or small enterprises.

While the party condemned the Elections Commission of Maldives threatening to dissolve it if Nasheed contests Wednesday’s ballots, British Ambassador James Dauris made the matter a point of concern in a meeting with the UK parliament, which has twice discussed Maldives’ political situation and heard calls for sanctions against human rights abusers in the country. 

The party has denounced the threats as ‘unlawful and unwarranted strict measures’ and maintained that Nasheed has been proven to be a victim of unfair prosecution and highlighted the United Nations Human Rights Commission call to quash his conviction and ‘restore his political rights’.