Government coalition has agreement on dividing parliament seats: Riyaz

The government coalition has an existing agreement on dividing parliamentary constituencies for next year’s ballots, the Jumhooree Party has said.

Speaking to local news website Vnews, the party’s parliamentary group leader Abdulla Riyaz said that the existing agreement divided parliamentary and administrative divisions among the four parties in the coalition.

Riyaz further said that the Jumhooree Party fully intends to abide by said agreement and that individuals contesting in the parliamentary elections will have their names and desired constituencies approved by President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih.

However, the Maldivian Democratic Party chairperson Hassan Latheef said after his party announced that they will be putting forth candidates for all constituencies, that they have not signed any such agreement.

At a National Assembly session on Saturday, Latheef said that while he had signed a number of agreements put to him by other parties in the coalition, he does not believe agreements that were not agreed to by all four parties are valid.