Jumhooree Party (JP) leader Qasim Ibrahim has said that his party lost in the parliamentary election because Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) had given out money to voters at the last minute.

Qasim said this in the JP council WhatsApp group in response to party council member and State Minister of Communications, Science and Technology Ali Solih, who said that JP had failed in the elections because it had allied with ‘a thief.’

In the WhatsApp group chat, Qasim claimed that MDP had given out large amounts of cash at the last minute and made promises of government employment.

Qasim said that JP had also been at a disadvantage since the party members in senior government positions began criticizing him.

The preliminary results show that five of the 41 JP candidates had been elected, while MDP, which had run in almost all the constituencies, won 69 seats.