MDP chair denies signing any agreements reg. upcoming majlis elections

Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) has not signed any agreements regarding next year’s parliamentary elections, says chairperson Hassan Latheef.

MDP’s national council on Saturday night passed to compete in all 87 constituencies in the upcoming elections.

Presiding over the council meeting, Latheef noted that the party had made a proposal to the ruling coalition on the matter, which he had signed on behalf of MDP.

However, noting that some of the other parties had rejected this proposal, he called it “void”.

“Hence, this party has not signed any agreements with the coalition, regarding the parliamentary elections,” added Latheef.

Further noting that Jumhooree Party (JP) had proposed to make a separate agreement with MDP, Latheef announced that “the party had not accepted this”.

An MDP national council meeting was held on Saturday night, amid concerns from the public over the alleged agreement between the coalition parties.

79 council members, out of 89, voted to compete in all 87 constituencies in the parliamentary elections, as proposed by party leader former President Mohamed Nasheed. He had initially proposed to compete in the area agreed by the coalition parties, but changed it following the concern from the council members.

While MDP has made this decision, the four coalition parties had previously agreed to work together in both the parliamentary and local council elections.

A leaked document shows that MDP had agreed to compete for 35 seats in the parliamentary elections, the rest were to be divided between JP, Adhaalath Party (AP) and Maumoon Reform Movement (MRM); while the agreement was dated July 12, it was signed by the coalition’s presidential candidate President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih and Latheef.