Government coalition partner Jumhooree Party (JP) will be fielding candidates for 36 constituencies, the party has said.

Party leader Qasim Ibrahim told the press on Wednesday that they are doing so because coalition partner Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) violated the agreement between them.

Qasim said that the JP will be allocating tickets to candidates who are both capable and have higher possibility of winning.

JP previously said that it would assign tickets to contest through a council, although this authority has since been passed to the party leader.

Qasim said that this decision was made because of the ‘small time window’ ahead of the parliamentary elections to be held in April.

JP has finalized the 36 candidates they are giving party tickets to, 21 of whom are incumbent parliamentarians aligned with the party.