As he gets ready to embark on a tour of the country in order to gain support for President Abdulla Yameen, Dr. Mohamed Shaheem Ali Saeed has called on all to “unite” behind the ruling party’s presidential candidate for the upcoming election.

The Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) on Saturday announced Dr. Shaheem as the incumbent president’s running mate for this year’s election, which is to be held in September.

Speaking at a press conference after the announcement, PPM’s deputy leader Abdul Raheem Abdulla said that since being selected as the incumbent president’s running mate ‘Dr. Shaheem has decided to travel to every single inhabited island in the country, to gain support for President Yameen’, starting from this Sunday (today).

Raheem said that there is no doubt that the former Islamic minister will end up as President Yameen and PPM’s “most loyal” vice president, adding that he is determined to win this election “in one go”.

After PPM’s announcement on Saturday night, Dr. Shaheem took to twitter and called on everyone “to unite behind President Yameen”.

He called on “scholars, youth and women” to unite behind the incumbent president and “work to win this election in one round”.

The Islamic University Chancellor started out his political career with Adhaalath Party. While the party had formed a coalition with the ruling party during the 2013 presidential elections, it has since withdrawn its support to the government and joined the opposition.

While Shaheem had resigned from the government following the arrest of Adhaalath Party leader Sheikh Imran Abdulla in 2015, he later chose to leave the party citing “contradicting political policies”.