Parliamentary polls: all 36 JP candidates 'guaranteed to win'

Jumhooree Party (JP) leader Qasim Ibrahim has said that party's tickets for the upcoming parliamentary elections are being given to those that are “guaranteed to win.”

JP on Wednesday announced that it will be fielding a total of 36 candidates in April's election.

Speaking at a press conference afterwards, Qasim said that the party nominations are given to those that meet its criteria, which includes their capability to win.

He said that someone that signs on to the party tomorrow “could win a ticket if qualified”, and that an individual that had been with them for 29 years might not “if they are not likely to win the seat.”

The current parliament speaker added that voters only care about the candidate, and not a party they represent.

JP, a ruling coalition partner, recently announced that it will be working with other parties in the parliamentary election, after accusing main ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) of sidelining his party.

Following this announcement, reports surfaced that JP is working to form a coalition with former President Abdulla Yameen’s new party, People’s National Congress (PNC).

Qasim at Wednesday night’s press conference said that he has been invited for discussions by lawmakers aligned with PNC.

However, he said that he has not held discussions with any opposition parties thus far. Despite this claim, he met with the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) parliamentary group- who have defected to Yameen’s PNC- last week, later announcing that he will do whatever necessary to ensure that the party is registered including summoning Elections Commission (EC) officials to parliament’s committee on independent institutions.

The Maamigilli constituency MP continued his criticism of MDP at Wednesday’s press conference, saying that fielding a common candidate for presidential elections is against democratic principles too.

The now ruling coalition- consisting of MDP, JP, Adhaalath Party and former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom’s Maumoon Reform Movement (MRM)- had chosen to unite behind MDP’s Ibrahim Mohamed Solih for last September’s presidential polls. The vice-presidential candidate was from Jumhooree Party.

While reports indicate that the coalition is on the verge of collapsing, it all started after MDP decided to contest for all 87 constituencies in the parliament elections; while JP claims that the coalition partners had agreed to “distribute” the parliament seats, MDP denies that such an agreement ever existed.