MP Aslam to remain ex-president Nasheed’s campaign manager

Former President Mohamed Nasheed, who has announced his intention to contest the upcoming presidential elections, will be keeping on North-Hithadhoo constituency MP Mohamed Aslam as campaign manager.

MP Aslam led Nasheed’s successful bid for the Maldivian Democratic Party’s presidential ticket, where he oversaw and sent teams to various outlying islands and held events in capital city Malé. During in an interview to local news station ‘RaajjeTV’ on Wednesday, Aslam said he was asked to stay on as manager this week.

The lawmaker told the station that despite the party not officially announcing it, he has been given the responsibility of managing campaign operations for the party’s presidential candidate. Aslam said he met with the campaign team on Tuesday night.

On Wednesday night, the party announced that its presidential campaign will cover all constituencies in the local 85-seat parliament and that Nasheed will remain as its presidential candidate. However, statutory party regulator Elections Commission has threatened to the part with dissolution for allowing Nasheed, who has been convicted on terror charges, to contest the party primary.

The Elections Commission has said that they are investigating the matter and officials that organized the ballots, held on May 30th as police officers stormed polling stations and confiscated ballot boxes, will face penalty ‘as per law’.

Nasheed’s efforts to be regain office is named after his long-used moniker ‘Island President’. The ‘Island President’ manifesto proposes such changes as moving from a presidential form of government to parliamentary and eco-based development through a ‘blue economy’ model, reminiscent of entrepreneur Gunther Pauli’s model of the same name. Nasheed acquired over 43,000 votes in the party primary.