A total of 52 individuals have submitted forms to contest in Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP)’s primaries for the upcoming parliamentary elections, the party has said.

MDP’s Elections Committee’s chair, Mohamed Ibrahim Manik told RaajjeMV that 52 individuals had submitted forms to contest in the party’s primary election "in two days".

While interested individuals are to submit applications before 4pm on December 19, only party members are eligible; they should have applied for party membership before December 7.

While those interested in contesting in the party’s primaries for the parliamentary election are to submit 200 membership forms, Manik said that they have received a total of 33,000 forms thus far.

MDP is currently verifying these forms, and will publicize its full voters’ list on January 13, 2019.

According to MDP’s registry, it currently has 49,000 members. However, the registry publicized by the Elections Commission states that it has 29,008 members.

As per the Commission’s registry, opposition Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) has the highest number of members, with 48,129 members.

The parliamentary elections are to be held in March next year.