Jumhooree Party (JP) has said that it will choose the Joint Opposition’s running mate on July 10.

The opposition parties have agreed to field a member of Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) as their common presidential candidate and a member of JP as the running mate.

MDP in their party congress on Saturday elected Hinnavaru MP Ibrahim Mohamed Solih as the candidate, after former President Mohamed Nasheed withdrew his candidacy. The self-exiled opposition leader relinquished MDP’s ticket despite winning over 40,000 votes in the primaries, after the Elections Commission maintained that he will not be allowed to run in September’s presidential election, citing his prison conviction as the reason.

JP has been facing criticism for still not announcing their running mate. At a press conference on Tuesday, the party’s secretary general Ahmed Sameer vowed to choose the running mate in a transparent manner according to party policies.

Sameer said that they have been late in announcing a running mate due to them having to complete some internal and legal procedures beforehand and that while they will be discussing with the Joint Opposition’s council, other parties do not have the right to tell JP to act in any way that goes against JP’s policies.