Renowned scholar Sheikh Ilyas Hussain has welcomed opposition coalition’s presidential candidate Ibrahim Mohamed Solih and his running mate Faisal Naseem nominations to the upcoming presidential election.

While the Jumhooree Party nominated Naseem as the opposition coalition’s running mate with 15 votes at the party’s council meeting held on Friday night, other JP members that vied for the position of running mate were JP deputy leader Dr. Hussain Rasheed, former minister at the President’s office Abdulla Ameen as well as MP Ali Hussain.

In a tweet posted on early Friday evening typed out in Dhivehi, Ilyas wrote that he wished the Maldives a pleasant future, going on to request the opposition coalition’s presidential candidate and running mate to serve the country in their term staunchly with sincerity.

While the opposition coalition’s nation-wide door-to-door campaign kicked off on Friday with Solih and Naseem having visited districts in capital city Male’ and it’s suburban extension Hulhumale as well as districts in Addu and Fuvahmulak cities, several top anti-government officials continue to assert that the opposition will beat incumbent President Abdulla Yameen by a huge margin.